Flip Side War
by Fritz Baugh
Summary: Sept. 2007, Year 25.  The Peoplebusters West Coast are back, and now they're in cahoots with the Extreme Peoplebusters.  What do they want?  The fate of two universes may depend on Ian Epimetheus's ability to answer that question.
1. Chapter 1

**Ghostbusters West Coast Division:  
>Flip Side War<br>Part One **

From the files of Dr. Fritz V. Baugh, GBWC CEO  
>GBI Case File No. GBI-2007-25310

* * *

><p><strong>Los Angeles, California<br>September 17, 2007  
>Ghostbusters Omnibus Timeline Year Twenty-Five <strong>

* * *

><p>The ECTO-WC pulled to a stop.<p>

"This is the address..." Aidan Munroe said, squinting at the paper in his hand.

"What was this place called again?" Jason Knetge asked.

" 'The Furrperson Home For Cats' " Rose Prevost replied, adjusting the blue and orange flight suit she still wasn't totally comfortable wearing. "The proprietor was a lady named 'Felina Furrperson'."

"That has got to be an alias..." Mick Nielson said, stomping out his cigarette as he got out of the converted SWAT van's driver seat.

"She'd had to have mental problems either way." Aidan remarked as Jason opened the back of the van and pulled out the proton packs. "Because if that's her real name the years of teasing and swirlies probably did their job..."

"I definitely picked the wrong day to go on a case..." Rose rolled her eyes.

* * *

><p><strong>Elsewhere... <strong>

* * *

><p>He came to consciousness abruptly, startled by a feeling like icewater being poured into his skull.<p>

He picked up his sword, and strode briskly to the room bearing a strange mark-a square with an X and an O inscribed within it-and waited.

"Enter..." a smooth voice called after a few seconds.

Inside, the Necromancer was waiting. Not in the trench coat he usually wore, but in a smock bearing a design of an inward-twisting spiral. "You look troubled, my friend..."

"You did not feel it?" the Soultracker asked.

"I've been extracting vis." the Necromancer replied, setting down the forceps he was holding. "Perhaps I missed something..." He stared into space, and made a few gestures. "Ars Intellego Vim...Hm..."

"You do feel it." The Soultracker replied. "Something evil..."

The Necromancer rubbed his large, leathery chin. "Yes...I hate that, too, that there might be something in town more dangerous and evil than I am...Ars Intellego Manium..."

The Soultracker turned and started to leave. "It is something I must find and destroy..."

"I gave you no leave." The Necromancer spat.

"Forgive me, Master...but I must. This may have the answers I need...to the strange feeling of unease that has only grown these last few months..."

The Necromancer grinned a wide, toothy Cheshire grin as the Soultracker left. _Memory fragments, perhaps? This could be perfect. My new enemies are moving into exactly the position I want them in... _

_And this new event...hm..._ His grin fell as he contemplated. _This feels...familiar...Like...yes... _

_Last Halloween!_

* * *

><p>"Run, Mrs. Van Moggy!" a voice shouted.<p>

There were the wailing of scores of cats. Two terrified women ran out of the house, dozens of cats following behind them.

And behind them was a ten-foot tall Budgie

"I really really picked the wrong day to go on a case..." Rose griped, arming her particle thrower.

* * *

><p><strong>Ghostbusters Central West <strong>

* * *

><p><em>"Anticipation runs high here in Central Park as we count down to the free concert marking the launch of the national debut album of the new rock band Mood Slime."<em> the TV blared away. _"Headlined by Oscar Venkman, the son of Ghostbuster Peter Venkman, the band has been a regional and Internet sensation for the last year..."_

"I bet Dr. Venkman is just beside himself." Jeremy Hicks chuckled as he watched the screen.

"Beep beep beep!" Otter, the team's engineer, called out jokingly. "Wide Load coming through!"

"It's too bad I'm going to make sure Rose and I lose your paychecks from now on!" a pitched female voice retorted.

Chelsea Aberdeen Baugh rolled into the room in the wheelchair her disabled husband usually used. Her abdomen was very swollen.

"Wow." Jeremy remarked. "You really do look like you're ready to go at any time."

"Due date is October 1st." she replied. "I pretty literally could have this baby at any time. And believe me, I'm ready...oh, Boy, am I ready..."

"But Chelsea..." Jeremy quipped. "You can't until Rose gets back, because someone has to answer the phone!"

Thankfully, she chuckled at that instead of picking up something and throwing it at him.

Jeremy shook his head as he turned back to the computer screen. For a moment, he was lost in the memory of the day he met her in the elevator at the LA Sedgewick. Four and a half years younger, and exasperated with her evasive friend "Doc". Who, Jeremy admitted, he thought was a stuck up jerk at their first meeting. _"She is a babe...what is she doing with that weirdo?"_ he remember thinking to himself...

Of course it worked out for the best. Jeremy found his own chance at love. And that stuck up, evasive, jerky weirdo "Doc" was both the father of Chelsea's baby and one of Jeremy's best friends.

"So how much fun do you think they're all having right now?" Otter asked.

* * *

><p>Jason ran as the giant bird chased him, squawking madly, ready to peck him to death.<p>

"THIS JOB DEFINITELY AIN'T WORTH ELEVEN FIVE A YEAR!"

"Where's a giant cat when you need one?" Aidan muttered under his breath.

* * *

><p>"I'm sure they're fine." Chelsea rolled her eyes. "It's funny..."<p>

"Oh?"

"I dunno...maybe it's the 'about to have a baby' thing...I keep thinking how next spring it'll be five years since this all started." Chelsea explained.

"I was just thinking about that myself." Jeremy admitted. "I wonder how ol'Joey and Peter are doing now. Been a while since we heard from them..."

"I remember how Joey hired me..." Otter said excitedly. "He just kind of ran into me when he and Fritters were driving around in the ECTO-1N." He paused. "And I do mean 'ran into'. Literally. He plowed the box I was sleeping in with the ECTO."

Chelsea nodded. "I'm surprised Williams isn't here trying to get in on the hype with Dr. Venkman's son's big debut."

Otter looked wistful. "Yeah...I remember the days when I had all those girls hanging all over me like Oscar does now..."

"Yeah. Nineteen Never." Chelsea rolled her eyes.

* * *

><p>"Me and all my kitties thank you!" Felina Furrperson gushed as she wrote out a check. "That awful bird was scaring them so!"<p>

Mick held up the smoking ghost trap. "Believe me...that thing was something to be frightened of."

Aidan picked at the hole the giant budgie had pecked in his flight suit. "Man...and this was a brand new suit..." Thankfully, it had only pecked the suit.

"You guys wouldn't be interested in giving any of these adorable kitties a new home, would you?" Furrperson asked eagerly.

"Erm...we have a couple of cats already." Jason replied sheepishly. "And we really need to get going to feed them. They get cranky when they're not fed on time!"

The Ghostbusters made their goodbyes and beat a hasty exit.

"Good save, Jason." Rose complimented him.

"Yeah." Mick agreed. "That lady gave me the major creeps. It's like every cliche about weird cat ladies come to life."

"It could be worse." Jason cracked. "Halle Berry could have been involved."

"I think the movies proved that 'Halle Berry' and 'Cat Ladies' are concepts that don't mix in this universe, so yeah..." Aidan agreed, stowing the proton packs. "Can we get moving?"

* * *

><p>Within two minutes, the ECTO-WC was back on the road.<p>

"You think KRAP is going to carry Mood Slime's concert?" Jason asked. "We know they've been giving away lots of free CD's..."

"Who cares?" Aidan retorted. "We get the Pay Per View free at GB Central West."

"The perks of having the new star's Dad as our boss." Rose rolled her eyes. "I think I'll sit that one out, thanks-not really my music."

"Yeah, yeah, Wierd Al is God, we know..." Mick started to chuckle...

Before he noticed the tornado following them down the freeway.

"WHAT THE F-?" Jason and Aidan shouted in unison.

Mick had the presence of mind to flip on the siren when he slammed the accelerator.

The tornado accelerated to keep up with him.

"Oh shit..." Mick muttered. "Rose! Call home!"

Rose grabbed the microphone on the dashboard radio. "ECTO-WC to GB Central West! Come in!"

* * *

><p>The warm up act had just started when the radios shrieked to life <em>"ECTO-WC to GB Central West! Come in!"<em>

"That's Rose!" Otter pointed out helpfully as Jeremy ran and grabbed the microphone.

"This is HQ-I hear you, Rose! What's up?"

_"I'm not sure I believe this either, but we're being chased down the Beverly Hills Parkway by a tornado!"_

"They're being chased by Zorro's horse?" Otter asked.

_"No! A real tornado!"_ Rose replied, exasperated. _"You know, big swirly cloud? Takes your house to Oz and drops it on the Wicked Witch of the East?"_

"You know, that Good Witch was kinda hot..." Otter quipped.

"Hang on..." Jeremy said. "I'm calling Fritz and Andy down here now..."

* * *

><p>"Generally you don't see this kind of behavior out of a major weather phenomenon." Jason said dryly. When Aidan and Rose both gave him a dirty look, he shrugged and said "Aw, c'mon, somebody had to say it...and this time it was me instead of Mick."<p>

Aidan looked back at the instrument panel he was sitting at. "This is the damndest thing...there's no barometric pressure differential...which is damn peculiar considering there's a f-ing tornado about two hundred feet behind us!"

Mick gritted his teeth. His blood went cold as a semi-truck blocked his path...instinct took over and he slammed the brakes to avoid hitting it...

...Allowing the unnatural weather phenomenon to scoop up the ECTO-WC, Ghostbusters and all.

* * *

><p>Jeremy kept calling into the microphone. "Rose? Rose? Mick? Jason, Aidan, anybody? ECTO-WC this is GBCentral West-do you copy?"<p>

Fritz and Andy came into the room briskly. Chelsea and Otter told them what had happened hurriedly as Jeremy tried a few more times, in vain, to reach their comrades.

"What was that last thing Aidan said?" Chelsea asked.

"He said the tornado wasn't causing any barometric pressure differential." Otter replied. "Which is bullshit-a tornado is _caused_ by rapidly dropping barometric pressure differentials. You can't have a tornado without a change in pressure! It's scientifically impossible!"

"Science doesn't always apply in our line of work, Otter." Andy pointed out.

"A tornado without a barometric pressure drop..." Fritz scratched his head. "This sounds familiar somehow..."

"It does?" Jeremy asked.

"I'm not saying anymore until I access the TOBIN database." Fritz shook his head, moving to the computer console in his office.

* * *

><p>The Soultracker looked into the sky. He had seen the impossible-a tornado appear out of nowhere on a cloudless day. Seen it swoop down and catch some hapless vehicle...<p>

...And vanish as quickly as it came.

_This was what I felt...and it's gone. And yet...there is something else...I feel another evil...perhaps it was..._

He jumped from the building he was perched on, and vanished into nothingness.

* * *

><p><strong>? ? ? ? ? ? <strong>

* * *

><p><em>Well...<em> Rose Prevost thought to herself. _Now I know what it feels like to be stuck in a clothes dryer. On full cycle._

"I'm gonna be siiiiiiiiiick!" she heard someone-she wasn't sure if it was Jason or Aidan-shout.

The tumbling came to an abrupt stop, accompanied by a crunching noise; she couldn't tell how much time had passed, and for all she knew she had passed out.

"Rose! Aidan! Jason! You still with me?" Mick shouted.

_Still thinks like a team leader..._ Rose remarked to herself. "Not so loud, Mick. I was trying to sleep over here..."

"I feel like the trunk of a taxi cab." Aidan said.

"Points for a bit of originality." Jason admitted.

"I've seen the trunk of a taxi. There's no comparison."

"What about you, Jason?"

"Let's do it again!"

Mick and Aidan looked out the window. It was dark outside, but at least they saw what looked to be buildings of a style they were used to.

Rose turned up the radio, which was now broadcasting nothing but static. Aidan took a look at the instruments. He shook his head. "The whole panel is crazy...maybe the Professor or even Fritz could make sense of this, but not me."

Within a minute, they had donned their proton packs and warily left the ECTO-WC, guns at the ready.

Jason took a quick look underneath. "Well, no witches under here..."

They heard a scream.

They turned to see two lumpy purple entities looking at them with utter horor. "PEOPLE!" they shouted, and ran away, like they were scared out of their wits.

"Now there's something you don't see every day." Jason quipped.

"Would you stop that?" Mick snarled at him. Jason just grinned sheepishly.

"Maybe they know where we are!" Rose pointed out. "And why we're here!"

"Worth a shot." Mick admitted. "Go!"

The four Ghostbusters took off after the entities. They chased them around a corner...

...and found themselves in a shopping mall. But it was a shopping mall full of ghosts.

The entire crowd silenced the second the four Ghostbusters appeared, and turned to stare at them, fear and disgust in their eyes.

"PEOPLE!" they screamed, and the scene became chaos incarnate as the entities were literally trampling each other to get away.

Jason spotted it first. One of the ad signs in the mall.

A generic-looking blond man covered by a neon orange circle and slash, with text reading "Peoplebusters. Totally Ready To Believe You. KL5-PBWC"

"Oh Hell." All four said in unison.

* * *

><p><strong>GB Central West <strong>

* * *

><p><em>"Repeating...we have lost the satellite feed to the Mood Slime debut concert. We are attempting to restore the connection as quickly as possible..."<em>

The news barely registered with Jeremy as they waited for Fritz to finish his search. Plus Kyle's cats. Maggie and Mister Whiskers, were sitting in front of the screen washing their butts anyway. _Compared to our bad day, that's __nothing_

"Oh Hell..." they heard Fritz exhale.

"When I hear a Deist say that, I know it's bad." Andy quipped.

"Two files. GBNY-1986-4/402. GBNY-1991-9/205. Both incidents record a tornado with no barometric pressure differential. In the first, Doctor Stantz, Doctor Venkman, and Professor Spengler were dimensionally shunted to another dimensional plane. In the second, three beings from that plane were shunted to ours."

Andy's eyes went wide. "Oh Hell...this is ringing a bell now. We didn't detect anything like that last Halloween, but we weren't looking..."

"You don't mean..." Chelsea inhaled.

Fritz adjusted his glasses. "Based on these read-outs, and the Founder's case files, I would say it's at least extremely possible that Mick, Jason, Aidan, and Rose were shunted to the Flip Side, the home dimension of the Peoplebusters."

* * *

><p>"Peoplebusters?" Mick said aloud, incredulously.<p>

"They're these ghost duplicates of the Ghostbusters from..." Jason started to answer excitedly.

"I know what the f-ing Peoplebusters are!" Mick shouted back, a little angry.

Rose looked around nervously. "We met some Peoplebuster versions of some of our guys last Halloween. Andy, Kyle, Jeremy, Jeff...and Fritz and Chelsea with her as some kind of shrieking disembodied head. The creepiest part, though, was the living version of Rachel. Her name was Ellie and everything..."

"Does anyone else hear a siren?" Aidan interrupted.

A giant monster truck pulled up to the front of the mall. It was black, and had the same neon orange logo as the poster-the license plate read "PROTO-WC".

"Man, and they're efficient, too!" Jason griped. "Why couldn't that be one way they weren't opposite from us?"

One door of the PROTO-WC was kicked off the vehicle from within. A loud growl accompanied it. "It's about time! It's been too quiet lately!"

"Dammit, Knetge! How many times has the Boss told you not to rip off the doors! Those cost us to replace, you know!"

"Blow it out your ass, Nielson!"

"Oh shit." Mick and Jason said in unison.

The two Peoplebusters were, indeed, the apparent Flip Side versions of Mick and Jason. PB Mick looked like the same sort of "zombie" that Rose too well remembered from last year's festivities...PB Jason was massive, muscular, and had stitching on his face and bolts on his neck.

"Am I seeing things, Jason, or do those meats look kinda familiar?" PB Mick pointed out.

"Like I f-ing care." PB Jason snarled, swinging his slime thrower around.

"Scatter!" Aidan shouted. "If that shit hits you..."

The four Ghostbusters ducked for cover as the two Peoplebusters started laying out a heavy fire of gooey green slime.

"What would our beams do to them?" Jason asked Rose.

"As I recall from what Janine said, not much of anything." Rose replied.

"Hey...was that Munroe I saw?" PB Mick guffawed. "By the Great Witch, it's fun to see a version of him in one piece!"

"Oh. Good. I was wondering where 'I' was..." Aidan rolled his eyes. _I'm trying to remember the case file...the ineffectiveness of our proton packs has to do with the electrostatic properties of Flip Side ectoplasm, but what..._

Something hit PB Jason on the back of the head, hard, with a loud clang.

"Wow. I ducked just in time." PB Mick observed excitedly.

PB Jason turned and howled indignantly, spraying the area the offending item came from with slime.

"You'll have to try harder than that!" a voice came from behind PB Mick.

PB Jason turned and fired at the source of the voice, slamming PB Mick with a stream of slime.

"Dammit!" PB Mick shouted.

"Who in the world is..." Aidan started to say, echoing the thought everyone had on their minds.

"Behind you, Knetge!" the new-but, the four Ghostbusters realized, strangely familiar-voice called out. Both Jasons-and the other Ghostbusters-turned to the source of it. There was a human looking man floating in midair, his eyes obscured by a visor; he had shoulder length reddish-brown hair, and was wearing what looked to be, of all things, a tan Ghostbusters flight suit and a blue jacket, complete with the red logo of Ghostbusters New York on its left chest.

"ULFORCE!" The giant Frankenstein Jason snarled angrily (so far, actually, he didn't seem to have any other mood) and fired a shot from his slime thrower.

The target seemed to vanish in a blur of light, appearing about ten feet away from where PB Jason shot.

"Try again." the flying man said. "I would recommend..." he started to say, then hesitated

The hesitation cost him-PB Mick popped up and blasted him with a slime stream, throwing him into a wall and sticking him there.

"Heh. The Boss is gonna be thrilled when he gets back!" PB Mick gloated. "The only fish bigger than this guy would be Epimetheus himself!"

"Aw, Hell no!" Mick snarled. "We are not standing by and letting this happen!" he grabbed a food court tray and flung it at his Bizarro counterpart.

PB Mick dodged. "Hey, Meat, you may hurt someone with that!"

"That's the idea!" Mick shouted back.

Aidan snapped his fingers. "There might be a way! Rose-quick, dial your thrower to setting three!"

Jason, meanwhile, had fired a shot from his thrower, knocking a lighting fixture into his counterpart. Peoplebuster Jason snarled.

"You're a big one..." Jason had to admit.

"Yeah, yeah...I know." PB Jason replied. "I'm gonna enjoy blasting you, you ugly meat mockery. You took me away from my crosswords for this call!"

"Crosswords? You can do crosswords? This ain't fair!" Jason said as he dodged another slime blast.

PB Mick charged GB Mick, firing his slime gun. Mick managed to dodge the first volley of shots, but "This may not be the smartest thing I've ever done..."

Mick tripped over the trash can...and then realized he fell right through it.

"Now!" Aidan shouted. A red beam slammed into PB Mick.

"What the?" both Micks said in unison.

PB Jason had grabbed a table and was about to smack GB Jason over the head with it...before a red energy beam grabbed him, too, fired by Rose.

"Can we even trap these guys, though?" Rose shouted.

"I don't know!" Aidan replied. "It may not be any more effective than trying to trap a human in a trap where we come from-so instead..." he pivoted his beam, shutting it off at the very last second, slamming Peoplebuster Mick into Peoplebuster Jason.

The impact knocked both Peoplebusters cold-or as close as something that was more or less a ghost could get.

"I remembered how the Professor explained it-ectoplasm is electrostaticly positive here, instead of negative. The positive beam has no effect on them-but the repulsor beam, setting three, does-at least a little kind of like setting five back home."

"Explain later." Rose chided, helping Mick up. "Help that guy who saved us, and let's get out of here before more of them show up! We know they have a Fritz, and an Andy, and a Jeff even if their Kyle is gone like ours!"

"Right!" Jason and Aidan said, going over to their would-be rescuer, stuck to the wall.

"Let us help you out of that, Sir!" Jason said.

"I can't believe I was caught so flat footed." the man grumbled. "I was just a little surprised, that's all-that some Ghostbusters, some real Ghostbusters, were here... How did that happen?"

"We aren't totally sure ourselves." Aidan admitted.

They finally got the man out of the slime, and he dropped to the ground.

The man pulled off his visor to dump some slime out of it. There was a quizzical look in his blue eyes as he scanned them.

They heard more sirens. "We don't have time for this." the man shook his head, putting his visor back on. "We need to get out of here-can you fly yet?"

"Fly?" Mick asked.

Jason jumped up...and hovered in mid-air. "Whoo-hoo! I knew there'd be an up side to this!"

"I'll take that as a yes." the man smirked. "The name's Ulforce-Victor Ulforce-and you might say I'm a Ghostbusters of sorts myself. Now let's get out of here-I'm sure Professor Epimetheus will be very interested in meeting you."

* * *

><p>To Be Continued<p>

* * *

><p><em>Legal Stuff that's Boring Unless You're Louis Tully...<em>

**Ghostbusters** is©1984 Columbia Pictures. **Ghostbusters 2** is ©1989 Columbia Pictures **The Real Ghostbusters** is ©1986 Columbia Pictures Television and DiC Productions. **Extreme Ghostbusters** is ©1997 Columbia Pictures Television and Adelaide Productions. The 88MPH comic book is © 2004 Sony and 88MPH Studios. _Ghostbusters: The Return_ is © 2004 Sony and iBooks. _Ghostbusters_ by IDW ©2008-Present Sony and IDW. _Ghostbusters: Ghost Busted_ © 2008 Sony and TokyoPop. _Ghostbusters: The Video Game_ ©2009-2011 Sony and Atari. No use of characters and images associated with the above is intended for profit, or to challenge the copyrights of the above holders. Characters and ideas not appearing in the above copyrighted works are to be considered © Fritz V. Baugh and/or their respective creators

The Peoplebusters created by Tony Marino in the RGB episode "Flip Side" (RGB-402). Professor Epimetheus created by Barry Peterson for Now Comics; he was mentioned in the 1992 3-D Annual, but never appeared in print.

Soultracker created by Kyle Stevens; developed by Fritz Baugh

The Furrperson Home For Cats and the giant Budgie were inspired by a story that appeared in Marvel UK's RGB#107, written by Jane Roome. I found out about it at ECTO-1's NYGB Comicguide, which is no longer available.

* * *

><p>#36165-42008u<br>101


	2. Chapter 2

**Extreme Ghostbusters: Flip Side War, Part Two Extreme Ghostbusters:**  
><strong>Flip Side War<strong>  
><strong>Part Two<strong>

From the files of Dr. Fritz V. Baugh, GBWC CEO  
>GBI Case File No. GBI-2007-25310

* * *

><p><strong>New York, NY<strong>  
><strong>September 17, 2007<strong>  
><strong>Ghostbusters Omnibus Timeline Year Twenty-Five<strong>

* * *

><p>"Some days, there are real advantages to this job!" Eduardo Rivera said as the guards let him and his friends by. The VIP pass hanging from his neck included the familiar Ghostbuster logo; several teenage girls moaned with jealousy as they were let through.<p>

"It ain't Henry Rollins, but it'll do, right?" Kylie Griffin rolled her eyes fondly as they walked backstage.

"I'll take it over Nine Inch Nails." Eduardo retorted, more to amiably pick at her than any genuine disdain.

"You guys sound like a married couple." the third member of the party joked. With his long dark hair and pale features, he almost looked like he could be Kylie's long lost brother-but wasn't. Like Kylie and Eduardo, he was wearing a GBI VIP pass and a black t-shirt with the words "Mood Slime" in pink letters, made to look like they were dripping.

"I know you might have forgotten this, Ghoul Boy, but we are married...we're entitled." Eduardo retorted.

"Should I be jealous you call Jeff that?" Kylie quipped. "You used to call me 'Ghoul Girl' years ago..."

"Trust me, Kylie-you got nothing to worry about there." Jeff shot back. "He needs less facial hair and more curves to get beyond first base."

"The disappointment." Eduardo said sarcastically.

Kylie laughed, and the laugh was heartfelt-Eduardo had been hit hard by the recent death of Bess Napier, a woman he'd dated for a brief time (back when he and Kylie were still in their "Deny we have any feelings for each other" stage of their relationship). So the opportunity to shake him out of his funk and hopefully enjoy himself was one she insisted on from the moment that their boss, Dr. Peter Venkman, had extended the offer to them.

The offer was for VIP passes to the launch concert of the rock band Mood Slime; as Venkman just happened to be the stepfather of the new group's lead singer, he was in a unique position to treat his employees thusly.

They finally reached the backstage area, where the members of the band-bassist Ella Stephens, lyricist and drummer Danny Hart, and second guitar Tim Price-were making their last minute adjustments to instruments and make-up.

"This eyeliner doesn't make me look fat, does it?" Ella asked.

"No." Tim retorted. "Your butt does that." It was an old joke between the two of them.

The lead singer and guitarist was the young man born, nineteen years before, as Oscar Wilhelm Wallance, but known on stage as Oscar Venkman. He was currently getting exasperated with his stepfather. "Dad, I keep telling you, I wasn't nervous until you started asking me if I was nervous! I think I'll do just fine if you go to your seat with Mom!"

Venkman looked a little hurt, then playfully touselled his stepson's hair. "But Mister Rock Star, look, a hair's out of place!"

"You want we should throw this guy outta here, Oscar?" Eduardo asked breezily, with an exaggerated accent.

"Kylie! Eduardo! Jeff!" Oscar said, taking a moment to greet them all. "You guys the only ones here?"

"Of course not." Kylie replied. "Garrett's with your Mom and Jess. He said he'll probably drop in later."

"And we saw your Grandpa Charlie working the crowds, selling T-shirts" Eduardo added.

Oscar rolled his eyes. "Probably bootlegs, too."

"I don't believe we've met..." Ella said teasingly, looking Jeff up and down.

"Oh." Oscar said sheepishly. "Jeff, this is Ella Stephens...Ella, this is Dr. Jeff Nash. He works for my Dad-he's on the Ghostbusters West Coast and Nightsquad."

Ella winked at him. "Nightsquad, huh? I hear that bunch is very...rowdy." The last word carried an approving tone.

"Oh, yeah...Bo would get along great with you..." Jeff replied. "Though if Jen found out I said that, she'd murder me..."

"Get this-even Roland made it." Eduardo said.

"You're kidding." Venkman responded. "Roland's taste in music is almost as square as Egon's."

"He brought Grace." Kylie added. "It's sort of a date."

Oscar chuckled. "Well, crap, I guess that means we should put at least one drippy power ballad in the set, then..."

"A rock concert may not be the most romantic thing in the world..." Kylie admitted. "But how often to you get to go to a hot new act's launch national debut concert for free?"

"Stop." Oscar held out his hand. "I had a hell of a time to get Dad to stop with that kind of pressure."

There was a round of laughter, and then it was time for the guests to leave the band to their last preparations.

"Break a leg." Jeff quipped as they left. "But I don't mean that literally."

* * *

><p><strong>Ghostbusters Central<strong>

* * *

><p>The Allmusic TV logo filled the screen, before being replaced by the face of the network's token over-thirty on-air talent.<p>

_"This is Corkie for Allmusic TV, and we're on the scene were, just a few moments from now, a free concert is being held in Central Park by the hot new band Mood Slime! The concert is in conjunction with the release of their first national album, 'Killerwatt'!"_

"The lead singer of Mood Slime is Oscar Venkman, the son of famous Ghostbuster Peter Venkman-the one Bill Murray played in the movies..."

"The actual concert is free if you show up, but will only be broadcast on Pay Per View." Ray Stantz explained to his wife of twelve years, Liz, who was sitting next to him. "Of course, since Oscar just happens to be our CEO's stepson, all the GBI franchises get the Pay Per View free."

"Peter has got to be busting with pride right now." Winston Zeddemore said. "Pardon the pun."

Janine Spengler was sitting on the couch, an empty spot beside her, legs stretched onto the coffee table. "I bet he feels about how I will when my kids win their first Nobel Prize." she joked.

"Yeah." Ray nodded. "Hey, Egon! You're about to miss Oscar's concert!" he shouted in the direction of the lab. "We know you hate the music, but...it's Oscar!"

"I'l be down in a minute!" they heard a muffled basso reply.

* * *

><p>Egon Spengler paused after answering Ray's prompt. <em>Ray does have a point...I can only imagine how proud Peter is of Oscar right now...probably about how I'll feel when the Twins win their first Nobel Prize. And I swore I wasn't going to miss any of these events ever again...<em>

He adjusted his eyeglasses as he regarded the screens in front of him. _These readings are odd...certainly unusual...but there's nothing sinister in them yet._ He typed in a few commands, then picked up the Model 3.0 PKE Meter lying on the desk. He entered a few commands into the Meter, then stuck it into his pocket.

* * *

><p><strong>Central Park<strong>

* * *

><p>"These seats okay?" Dr. Roland Jackson asked nervously.<p>

Grace Temple rolled her eyes at him fondly. "Roland, we're in like the second row...they couldn't be much better."

"I'm still surprised that AJ didn't want to sit with us."

"Hey, I understand." Grace laughed. "When I was a teenage girl, I wouldn't have wanted to go to a rock concert with my older brother and his girlfriend-especially if the rock star was someone I actually dated for a while."

"I guess when you put it that way..." Roland had to admit. "At least I convinced her to let Casey chaperon her instead. The Lord knows I won't have to worry about him letting her go to Oscar."

Grace nodded, having heard the whole story before-Casey Jackson and Oscar Wallance (Venkman) were about the same age, and had been good friends for a couple of years. But that was before Roland and Casey's sister had started dating Oscar; that relationship was over now, but Casey still seemed to be holding a bit of a grudge.

Of course, in the months since she'd met Roland and the other Ghostbusters a few months before-chasing away a spectral knight literallyfrom a fairy tale, camped out on her front lawn-the complexities of Roland's family life had been one of the more mundane things she'd learned to deal with.

It certainly made it interesting. How many other men had she known could cancel a date claiming _"I have to go help the guys take down a bunch of killer disposable razors animated by a malignant death force"_ and have it not be the dumbest lame excuse ever?

* * *

><p>Dana Venkman tried not a look at it, but resigned herself to the inevitable: the building at Central Park West where she used to live was in sight. Nearly a quarter century before it had been her home-and the place where her weird life with the man who later became her husband had begun.<p>

Garrett Miller was sitting nearby, munching popcorn. "Hey...look who's here!"

Dana's husband came up to them, beaming. "He threw you out, didn't he?" she asked.

Venkman shrugged. "He said I was making him nervous. I have no idea how that could be-just because I wanted to remind him how many people are here, how much money is riding on this, and suggest what songs he should play and in which order!"

Dana rolled her eyes. "I remember hearing about your brief career as 'Doctor Vee'...no urge to play Stage Dad here, no..."

"Ah well...I'm in the crowd tonight." Venkman said, flashing his Cheshire grin. "That will be enough, I guess"

_And more than some_ he thought snidely, but silently.

* * *

><p><strong>London, England<strong>

* * *

><p>"Looks like it's ready to start!" Kate Wallance said, prodding her husband Andre. "You must be very proud!"<p>

"Proud?" Andre Wallance replied, trying not to look sour about the whole thing. "Of course...my son is about to become a world famous musician...why would I not be proud?" _Other than the fact he's about to become famous in a form of performance that can barely be called "music"...and you wouldn't know he's my son, as he's taken on his name for this career _He sighed. He wished he didn't feel so bitter about that last part.

It was around midnight in England, but this was a once-in-a-lifetime event for the Wallance family. The same feed that the GBI Franchises were receiving was being provided to them too.

"Trying to find Jessica in the crowd?" Emilia teased her oldest full brother Hayden.

"Piss off, Emi." Hayden replied sharply.

"Watch your language, please, Hayden." Andre said firmly.

Hayden and Emilia's middle sibling Lars nudged her. "I think you hit a nerve, Emi..."

The part that Hayden hated most of all, of course, is that his siblings were exactly right.

* * *

><p><strong>Ghostbusters Central<strong>

* * *

><p>"Wow..." Ray shook his head. "Hard to believe it...remember when we first met Oscar? He was only eight months old, and Dana had come to see Egon at Columbia because his carriage had started to roll down the street all by itself?"<p>

"And you guys didn't even bring me in on the case." Winston pointed out, with a slightly mocking tone.

"We didn't want to get you arrested too." Ray replied.

"Looks like the opening act's wrapping up." Janine pointed out, handing Egon a Twinkie. "What was that group called again?"

"Toilet Sushi." Liz answered. "They're one Peter's agency manages..."

"Here they come!" Winston pointed, as Oscar and his bandmates took the stage.

* * *

><p><strong>Central Park<strong>

* * *

><p>"IT'S NOT TOO LOUD, IS IT?" Roland shouted at Grace, worredly.<p>

"IT'S FINE, ROLAND!" Grace laughed.

"WHAT?" Roland asked.

Jeff laughed loudly. "COMPARED TO THE LAST CONCERT I WENT TO, THIS IS NOTHING!"

"WHAT CONCERT WAS THAT?"

"ZAGNUT BACK IN '06. HE HAD THE MUMMY WITH HIM AND EVERYTHING..."

* * *

><p>Mood Slime finished their latest song to thunderous applause.<p>

"And now a little something slower...for a friend of mine who's brought his date..." Oscar told the audience.

Grace nudged Roland. "It's so cute the way you're all embarrassed by that."

"Um..."

But Roland didn't get to say any more than that, because a sudden wind kicked up.

* * *

><p>"Aw, man..." Ray grumbled, as the picture vanished into a cloud of static and a "Please Stand By" message came up on the screen. "It figures-I knew we should have just gone ourselves..."<p>

* * *

><p>The wind had gotten worse. There were sounds of panic starting to circulate through the crowd.<p>

Venkman muttered bitterly "This has got to let up! If this thing gets canceled, I'm gonna be out an assload of money!"

Oscar grabbed his microphone. "Hey, everybody, chill! Nothing to panic about!"

"Is he right?" Dana asked her husband, while simultaneously looking around to try and locate her daughter Jessica, who was with Charlene Zeddemore.

"I was about to say probably, but now I'm not so sure!" Venkman replied, pointing. "Look!"

* * *

><p>" Roland exclaimed incredulously. "The sky was clear just ten seconds ago!"<p>

"We gotta evacuate!" Garrett called.

"Is it just me, or is there something distinctly not natural about this?" Kylie shouted over the gale.

"Well, 'not natural' is kinda part of our job description, right?" Eduardo shouted back.

"I hate to be using a cliche, but..." Jeff paused, realizing that something about this was really bugging him. "I got a bad feeling about this." And he meant it.

* * *

><p>Peter Venkman looked at the tornado, frozen. He was realizing that this wasn't just a tornado...he wasn't quite sure why, yet, but it was a distinctly <span>familiar<span> tornado.

* * *

><p>The tornado swirled for a few seconds more, then a blast of swirling, greenish light shot out of it. The light hit the ground right beside the stage, scattering the roadies and sound techs.<p>

Then the unnatural weather phenomenon vanished, just as quickly as it had appeared.

The green smoke dissipated...four dark shapes became clearer.

When he saw them, it all fit together in Venkman's head. Where he had encountered a tornado like that before-twice before.

"Oh. Shit."

* * *

><p>There was a loud, feral shout of "Eat slime, Meatbags! Brooklyn Barrows is in the house!" accompanied by a spray of green slime.<p>

"Say what?" Garrett said incredulously.

Literally jumping out of the impact site was a man wearing a tan flight suit, with something resembling a cross between a proton pack and a slime blower strapped to his back. He had a muscular torso and legs, but had no arms at all. His face had a solid jawline and a thick head of reddish-brown hair, but his face was pale and rotting, with teeth missing and the bones of his neck exposed.

"This anything like a duck shoot?" another of the new arrivals asked. He had arms, unlike his comrade, and was wearing an identical slime pack. He was a little chunkier in build, and all of his exposed skin was pure darkness, save for a wide, leering grin and two blank white eyes.

"Golly, Eddie! I think it worked!" the third member of the party squeaked excitedly. She might have looked relatively normal next to the other two, with her blonde hair and tan skin-if it wasn't completely obvious that the tan skin was slathered on make-up of some sort. She was dressed in a pink cheerleader outfit; in her right hand she carried a pistol that looked like a smaller version of the others' weapons, and in her left hand a pom-pom.

The last member of the party might have been the most freakish of them all. He was dressed in a full flight suit, complete with a name tag reading "RIVERA", and a slime pack. The bizarre part was that his long face ended in a little black nose, and was covered in white fur. The horns sticking out from under his unruly brown hair and matching beard under his chin only completed a very goatlike look.

All four of them wore the same symbol-the three men on their right shoulders, the girl on the front of her cheerleader costume: A generic-looking blond man covered by a red circle and slash.

"Man, somebody tell me this is just a contact high..." Eduardo said to Kylie, mostly rhetorically.

The goat man pulled something out of his belt. "Rivera to PB Central. Confirm successful transit. I'd say we're in whatever the Epimetheus world has in place of Boo York, exactly as planned."

_"Confirmed, Rivera"_ a voice came out of the device. _"I'll let Mister Zeddemore and Ms. Melnitz know."_

"What the f- is going on?" Eduardo shouted. "Those weirdos look like...they look like..."

"They look like us" Kylie finished the thought.

* * *

><p><em>"Repeating...we have lost the satellite feed to the Mood Slime debut concert. We are attempting to restore the connection as quickly as possible..."<em>

Then a familiar ring interrupted Ray's tirade about the satellite company.

"The phone? Now?" Janine grumbled.

"Get it." Egon said calmly. "It may be nothing, but..."

Janine got up to grab the house phone in the rec room; it was one of the many features that had been wired into the building during it's electronic upgrade eight years before. "Ghostbusters."

"Huh." Ray exclaimed as his cel phone began to play "Cleanin' Up The Town". "It's Peter." he remarked when he saw the caller ID. "Hey, Peter, you know those jerks at the satellite company have lost the concert feed?"

"Egon-it's Fritz Baugh from Los Angeles. He said...wait...what?"

"Slow down, Peter, what did you just say again?"

Egon, Winston, and Liz looked back and forth between the two conversations.

_"Peoplebusters?"_Ray and Janine said separately, but in perfect unison.

Janine chuckled dryly, handing the phone to Egon. "I think you better take this one, Dear..."

"Stay on the line with Fritz-we're on it at the park!" Ray shouted, heading for the fire pole.

He and Winston suited up, piled into the ECTO-1, and were screaming through the streets of Manhattan in record time.

* * *

><p>"This is a really lame promotional stunt!" Roland heard somebody in the crowd griping. "Just 'cause Oscar's Dad's a Ghostbuster..."<p>

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about the crowd panicking." Roland commented dryly.

"Any ideas what to do about this?" Eduardo asked.

"Well, let's see...giant crowd. We have no proton packs. Who needs a plan?" Garrett said brightly.

Kylie got a glimpse of Venkman. He was gesturing at his cell phone, and making a gesture-like a circle with a slash through it. "I think help's already on the way...we just gotta contain this until they get here..."

"With what?" Roland asked.

"Style." Jeff answered, disappearing.

"Nash, wait, what..." Roland started to protest.

"So where do you think we are?" Peoplebuster Kylie asked excitedly. "Exactly?"

"Looks like maybe the Park." Peoplebuster Eduardo answered. "Except for all the trees, and no fountains with skulls and blood coming out, anyway..."

"We want TriBooCa!" Peoplebuster Roland exclaimed. "I bet the taxis here don't take ghosts, either!"

"Who cares?" Peoplebuster Garrett shouted, starting to fire his slime pack again. "Look at all the people! We're in the corner of Meat Central! Boo-Yah!"

"The mission, Miller!" Peoplebuster Eduardo growled. "The mission isn't to bust people, it's to..."

"HALT, YOU ECTOPLASMIC FIENDS!" Jeff Nash shouted, in loud, stilted dramatic tones as he appeared. "THE GHOSTBUSTERS WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO INVADE OUR WORLD! WE WILL STOP YOU!"

"Who's this jackass?" Peoplebuster Roland asked.

"Jack Frost." Jeff answered, gesturing downward.

Peoplebuster Garrett, who had already started to run to attack, suddenly found himself slipping on a patch of ice, and was sent crashing into the audience.

"Maybe not my best idea..." Jeff admitted to himself.

"Wait a minute..." Peoplebuster Eduardo mused, scratching his beard. "I knew the haircut looked familiar. Ice powers instead of fire, but that fits this screwed up world-you're the meat version of Nash!"

"He looks better without skin." Peoplebuster Roland guffawed.

"Maybe we can arrange that!" Peoplebuster Kylie squeaked, firing her small slime gun.

_I gotta do something or the crowd is gonna riot!_Oscar thought to himself. He turned and shouted to the rest of the band: "Skip to the next song on the set!"

All three members of the band just looked at him dumbstruck.

"Just do it!" Oscar barked.

Shaken by the force of his words, habit born out of long hours of practice kicked in. Fortunately, the song after the planned "drippy love balad" was a rollicking number that fit a fight scene quite well.

_Don't let me down on this, Dad..._Oscar thought to himself as he sang.

"Wow!" Peoplebuster Roland realized. "We're at a concert! I love hard rock music! If only I'd known-I could have brought my violin!"

"Keep with the plan, Jacko!" Peoplebuster Eduardo snarled.

Peoplebuster Garrett, meanwhile, was starting to pull himself upright-not easy with a bulky slime pack and a lack of hands.

He heard a meat voice imploring the crowd to stay back. "You know how dangerous these special effects can be!" Something about that voice...

The speaker, while wearing a t-shirt of a design that seemed to be common (black with pink words on it), had a face that Peoplebuster Garrett recognized-albeit in a more decayed form-from years of press material even before he was hired by Peoplebusters International. "Peter Venkman?"

"Oh shit..." Venkman inhaled.

Jeff dodged one blast of slime, but though the crowd was being placated by Mood Slime's song, he knew he was still fighting with one figurative hand behind his back. _There's just too many people around here..._

"MEAT VENKMAN!" Peoplebuster Garrett shouted to his cohorts. "I FOUND MEAT VENKMAN!"

"I thought his name was PeteVenkman!" Peoplebuster Roland guffawed.

"Oh shit." Jeff said.

"This is better than we ever could have hoped!" Peoplebuster Eduardo said gloatingly. "Forget the scouting mission to test the transit-grab the meat version of Venkman!"

Peter Venkman looked around himself, and assessed the situation. Ray, Egon, and Winston were on the way, but they couldn't just teleport to Central Park from Ghostbusters Central (not even with Liz's help-she would need time to prepare such a spell). This was a rock concert with thousands of innocents in close proximity.

And if these "Extreme Peoplebusters" were as uncaring about "meat" life as the Peoplebusters he'd had the misfortune of dealing with twice before, those innocent bystanders would be in danger as long as the situation went unchanged.

He made one last glance to Dana. "Trust me on this..." he said quietly, hoping she'd at least see the words if she couldn't hear them.

Venkman held up his hands and loudly told them. "I surrender. Just leave everyone else alone. Take me wherever you need to, but just pack up and leave. If you do that, I'll go with you peacefully...quietly...I'll enjoy it!"

"You can't..." Kylie started to protest.

Peoplebuster Eduardo stroked his beard, and his eyes narrowed. "Deal."

Peoplebuster Garrett looked incredibly disappointed at this, truth to tell. "Dammit...I was hoping for more violence..."

With that, Peoplebusters Roland and Kylie fired, trapping Venkman in a ball of sticky green ooze. "Whoops, sorry...premature ejaculation!" Peoplebuster Roland joked.

"His jokes aren't any better than yours..." Garrett quipped to the real Roland, to hide the incredible feeling of helplessness he was feeling. He hated the thought, because it paralleled his freakish duplicate, but he was wishing for a little more ability to inflict violence at this moment himself.

Peoplebuster Roland grabbed the ball of slime holding Venkman, and walked it over to the others. Peoplebuster Eduardo pulled a shimmering orb out of his flight suit pocket. "I think Mr. Zee and Frito are gonna call this a more successful test than any of us ever hoped for..."

"We don't know if the return trip's gonna work yet, Torgo..." Peoplebuster Garrett retorted.

"Dad!" Jessica Venkman's voice called out of the crowd. Venkman managed to get one last glance at her and Dana, who was having to get Roland's help in holding her back.

Peoplebuster Eduardo uttered an invocation, and shattered the orb. A tornado much like the one that brought them appeared almost instantaneously.

"If only we could do something..." Kylie snarled helplessly.

As the tornado closed in, there was a sudden blur of movement. It took Kylie half a second to realize what it was: Jeff, leaping into the swirling vortex with Venkman and the Peoplebusters just as it closed.

The tornado disappeared, leaving the skies clear once more.

The crowd erupted in racous applause.

"The Professor ain't gonna like this one bit..." Eduardo stated.

"Thanks for once more belaboring the obvious. Torgo." Garrett retorted.

_I hope to God you know what you're doing, Peter._ Dana thought to herself. _For once..._

* * *

><p>To Be Continued<p>

* * *

><p>The Peoplebusters created by Tony Marino in the RGB episode "Flip Side" (RGB-402). Professor Epimetheus created by Barry Peterson for Now Comics; he was mentioned in the 1992 3-D Annual, but never appeared in print.<p>

Mention is made of "All Hell Breaks Loose" by Bo Holbrook, Ben King, and Fritz Baugh; and "Chronicles of Gozer" by Various writers, edited by Vincent Belmont

Liz Hawthorne Stantz created by OgreBBQ.

Mood Slime and Grace Temple created by Rosey Collins. Some allusions are made to events depicted in her fan fictions, available on . She also contributed some ideas for the Extreme Peoplebusters.

Corkie and AllmusicTV are references to _Ghostbusters: Legion_, written by Andrew Dabb.

Thanks to Jason Knetge for the "Grandpa Charlie selling T-shirts" line. I can't believe I didn't think of that myself...

* * *

><p>#3718-73008w<br>103


	3. Chapter 3

**Extreme Ghostbusters/Ghostbusters West Coast:**  
><strong>Flip Side War<strong>  
><strong>Part Three<strong>

From the files of Dr. Fritz V. Baugh, GBWC CEO  
>GBI Case File No. GBI-2007-25310

* * *

><p><strong>Los Diablos<strong>  
><strong>The Flip Side<strong>

* * *

><p>Aidan looked back for the fifth time, now feeling almost assured that the Peoplebusters hadn't followed them.<p>

"So where are we going?" Mick asked their mysterious rescuer, Victor Ulforce.

"We're almost there." Ulforce answered.

"I was afraid of that. Mick grumbled. "Back home this ain't exactly the best part of town. Add to that..." he trailed off.

If Ulforce made any note of the broken thought, he didn't say so. "Here." he pointed.

Jason's eyes went wide. "Station Company No. 23!" This is perfect!"

"I'm not following..." Rose shook her head.

"Station 23 is where-well, the real Station 23, back in LA-is where they filmed the interiors in the two _Ghostbusters_ movies." Jason explained. "I always wondered why we never bought the place..."

"Well, Fritz said when the team formed it was way too big." Mick noted, nevertheless smirking with agreement. "They had like a dozen members."

"And the boss is right-there's no way all of them would have fit in this place." Rose added. She'd been hired just before the massive, two-subteam version of the GBWC fell apart, and the thought of all of them trying to squeeze into a place like this was an unpleasant one.

Ulforce looked around a time or two. "Follow me." With that, he flew through the wall.

"I love being a ghost!" Jason cried exuberantly, and followed.

"We'll be sure to tell Rachel you said that." Mick rolled his eyes.

"We definitely need to have a little talk about Mister Ulforce if we get a chance." Rose said quickly. "Alone."

"You noticed too?" Aidan quipped.

"Not now." Mick shook his head. "First law of crisis is only panic about one thing at a time. Victor Ulforce is not high on the panic list right now."

The team of Ghostbusters were led to the basement of the dilapidated firehouse; for a half second, it looked a little odd to them not to see a high voltage laser containment grid there. It was just a basement.

But what they saw down there was another shock: "Ellie?" Rose exclaimed.

Mick, Jason, and Aidan's jaws all dropped. She was dressed similarly to Ullforce-wearing a jacket and work pants that resembled a Ghostbusters New York uniform-but though she was solid, and not shimmering in blue light, she was otherwise a perfect match for the team's "Spirit Liaison", the entity they still usually called Rachel Leavenworth.

"Look what I found." Ulforce said simply, removing his visor again, and picking out some more slime residue.

"We met last year." Rose said. "I was dressed up like a witch, but..."

Ellie's eyes went wide. "You found Ghostbusters? From the human world? But how..."

Aidan chuckled a little uncomfortably. "Well, we're kind of a little in the dark about that ourselves..."

* * *

><p><strong>Peoplebusters Central<strong>  
><strong>Boo York City<strong>

* * *

><p><em>Aw crap...here it is...<em> Venkman tried to choke back the hot wings he'd had for dinner, now struggling to be free of his digestive system once more. _The ol' Full Body Tilt-A-Whirl...and here I forgot my Dramamine. But then again, I didn't pencil 'Get attacked by the Extreme Peoplebusters and dragged off on an unplanned dimensional jaunt' in my Dayrunner, either..._

He felt himself thrown roughly to the floor, and through the fog of nausea and the cocoon of green slime that was containing him, he heard voices...

"Wow! What a ride! I wanna do it again-it makes me feel the way I did when I rode the Tilt-A-Whirl without a seat belt!" the voice like Roland's said.

"Settle down, Roland." the voice like Garrett's chided.

"What the f- did you guys come back already for?" an angry female voice with a deep Brooklyn accent demanded. "You found Egon already?"

"Well, not quite. But we did get a real helpful clue..." the voice like Kylie's said.

Venkman felt himself dragged up off the floor, and the slime covering his face was roughly pulled off.

"Hey, watch the hair!" he protested. "Baldness runs in my Dad's side of the family, you know, and I will send the Rogaine bills to you if I have to!"

"Meat Venkman!" Peoplebuster Roland said proudly.

"I thought his name was Pete Venkman." Peoplebuster Garrett rolled his eyes. "And we did that joke already today."

Venkman had been at Peoplebusters Central once, twenty-one years before. It didn't look any more pleasant now. The four Extreme Peoplebusters he'd already became way too aquainted with, but they weren't alone: four other sets of eyes were now examining him with various degrees of disgust and dispassion in them.

A skeletal form in a wheelchair was glancing back and forth at Venkman and a device in his hand, a skull on a stick. He had the same hollow eye sockets Venkman remembered from Peoplebuster Egon, but if his shaggy brownish hair, peg leg, and dark blue flight suit trimmed in orange didn't clue him in who this was "supposed" to be, the name tag reading "Baugh" would do the trick.

Sitting in the lap of the mockery of GBWC CEO Fritz Baugh, was a disembodied head, a similar mockery of Dr. Baugh's wife, Chelsea.

But more jarring, in Venkman's eyes, was the freakishly large, muscularly built man wearing a flight suit in Winston's colors. All his exposed "skin" was solid black, like a creation of shade, similar to Peoplebuster Roland. _It has to be Peoplebuster Winston..._ Venkman told himself. _Sixteen years ago...when Winston was hit with the Peoplebuster slime..._

* * *

><p><em>Winston screamed, and transformed into something larger, like an over-muscled version of himself. His skin faded to pure black energy, like a ghost made of pure darkness itself, with only beady white eyes and grinning teeth showing. <em>

_"Wow!" Peoplebuster Ray exclaimed. "He looks just like the real Winston now!"_

* * *

><p>Arguably even worse was the last person in the room, the bony woman with spiky red hair and piercings, wearing what looked to be one of Peoplebuster Egon's flight suits. "I say we string him up until he tells us where Egon and the others is..."<p>

_Janine?_ Venkman swallowed his tongue. _What the shit?_ He'd seen the Flip Side version of Janine on his previous trip...but she had screamed and run in fear at the sight of the three Ghostbusters. It was like some soft, pliable mockery of the real woman (which only hindsight made clear how accurate it was at the time).

This one was more like some kind of amped up parody of Janine as they'd first met her. Instead of Cindy Lauper with a chip on her shoulder, more like Joan Jett with perpetual PMS.

And then a different insight dawned on him as he looked around: _Where's__ the rest of them? "Egon", "Ray", and "Me"?_

"This is a very interesting development." Peoplebuster Fritz mused. "With this we may have a bargaining chip that Epimetheus can't refuse..."

_Epimetheus__?_ "Bargaining chip? This ain't gonna involve getting plunked into a roulette wheel, will it?"

"Don't give me ideas." Peoplebuster Janine snarled.

"Down, girl." Peoplebuster Winston said, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "We're gonna get them back-and we can't hurt this Venkman too badly until we do."

"Thanks for the reassurance." Venkman deadpanned.

"The dimensional shunt was a complete success." Fritz verified.

"What about the possibility that some meat beings were brought into our world when we transited? You said it was a possibility." Eduardo asked.

"I don't know and I really don't care" Fritz replied brusquely.

"We need to make sure Epimetheus knows we have this Ghostbuster." Peoplebuster Winston said. "And in the meantime, somebody's gotta keep an eye on Meat Venkman."

"I think there's a perfect candidate." Janine smirked. "REMILS!" she shouted.

A portly, bald little man wearing shabby clothes that might have once been regal came flying eagarly through the floor. "Yousa calls meesa, Miss Janine, Ma'am?"

" 'Remils'?" Venkman said incredulously. "What the f-?"

The bald man's eyes went wide. "PEE-TAH!" he shouted joyfully and started to kiss Venkman.

"You are an evil woman, Melnitz." Kylie said approvingly.

"I know." Janine said proudly.

"Aw, wait a damn minute..." Venkman protested. " 'Remils'? That ain't even trying! It's just Slimer's name spelled backwards! What kind of retard came up with this idea?"

"Yousa not my Pee-tah..." Remils said, stroking Venkman's face in a creepy manner. "But yousa do until Missa Janine and Massa Winston get him back!"

"I changed my mind. There's heroic sacrifice to save human lives, but this is too much!" Venkman whined. "Send me back home! Continue attacking Central Park and everything if you have to!"

* * *

><p><strong>Ghostbusters Central<strong>  
><strong>New York City<strong>

* * *

><p>The ECTO-1 roared back into the garage, and stopped with a jerk-a sure sign that the driver, Winston Zeddemore, was not happy with the results of their run.<p>

Egon and Janine looked at each other. "I'm gonna take it his news ain't good either..." she said.

Winston, Ray, Liz, and two of the younger Ghostbusters-Eduardo and Kylie-got out of the car, all looking glum.

"Peter's gone." Ray shook his head. "We tried to get some readings, but with so many people around, there's no telling if they were any good."

"I tried boosting the PK signature with a spell." Liz added. "An old Creo Vim effect."

"And it did help." Ray nodded, holding out his PKE Meter.

Egon took it and started to examine it, scrolling through some screens. "There was another complication when you were gone."

"Great." Kylie deadpanned. "How could this get any worse?"

"At just about the same time the video feed went screwy, Fritz Baugh in LA got a call from his team on the field." Janine explained. "Their truck was being chased by a tornado. With no atmospheric pressure change."

"The exact same effect that accompanied transits to the Peoplebuster dimension in 1986 and 1991." Kylie finished.

"I'm bettin' this ain't a coincidence, is it?" Eduardo asked rhetorically.

"Hm..." Egon's brow furrowed.

"What you got, Egon?" Ray asked.

Egon didn't answer-he just turned and headed for the stairs.

"Egon?" Ray asked.

"I need to compare this signature to something. But I'm not saying any more until I do." Egon answered enigmatically.

"The aura was very curious." Liz mused. "It felt strangely...Faerie in nature..."

"Roland and Garrett stay at the concert?" Janine asked. Eduardo nodded as Kylie and Ray headed off to follow Egon.

"They were helping Dana with Jess-she's completely freaked out. Plus of course they still had family or a date there..." Eduardo answered. "Oh...er...one more thing...Jeff jumped in the portal as it closed. He's gone too."

* * *

><p><strong>Boo York City<strong>

* * *

><p>Jeff ignored the creeping "Tilt A Whirl" sensation-he'd endured worse three years before, during his training with Sub Zero <em>After being left in a snowdrift wearing nothing but a loin cloth, this is nothing...<em>

Still, his landing wasn't as graceful as he'd normally have accomplished-he hit an awning, was flipped across a street, and landing in a bathtub filled with dingy water and an undead honeymooning couple.

_Triple botch on that roll..._ Jeff mused to himself.

"Eeeek! A pervert!" the female half of the couple screamed. She was a skeleton in a blonde wig, and held her hands up over her chest like she had something to hide.

The male of the couple was pale, muscular, missing some teeth, and wearing a Boo York Trolls jersey, which seemed a bit incongruous on an otherwise naked body. "I'll murdalize the bum!" the jock shouted, and grabbed Jeff.

It's yellow, bloodshot eyes went wide.

His corpse bride screamed.

"PEOPLE!"

With that, the duo scrambled out of the tub and ran, the jock sobbing in the blonde skeleton's arms.

"Well, now that was the second weirdest experience I've ever had in a hotel room." Jeff deadpanned.

Jeff started to get up out of the bathtub-but realized that the contents had frozen. "What the f-? I didn't use my power...what..."

With a bit of exertion, he extricated himself from the icy mess. _I realize I never asked the Professor how the 'Flip Side' might mess up a guy who already had paranormal power...our world didn't seem to give 'Bizarro Jeff' much to worry about last year, but dimensional physics isn't always fair..._

He started to gently tap the wall, until his hand sent through it. _I gotta get moving before the Peoplebusters show up here...I'm not gonna have any element of surprise if they catch me..._ Jeff looked through the wall. Laying in the hallway, underneath a sign reading "Sedgewick", was an entity in a bellhop uniform.

"Of course..." Jeff muttered. "At least it isn't the London Sedgewick. Gods know what kind of diseases that place would give me..."

The entity's bloodshot eyes went wide when it finally noticed Jeff. It took a long, deep drag off the doobie it was holding, and then started to do a Butthead laugh. "Huh huhuhuhuh huh huhhuhuhuhuh..."

"Pardon me." Jeff said, flying past the bellhop.

"Huh huh huhuhuhuh...say hello to Remils for me, Dude..."

* * *

><p><strong>Bevery Hills Parkway<strong>  
><strong>Los Angeles<strong>

* * *

><p>The Ecto-Cruiser sat nearby, as Fritz and Jeremy-now in full Ghostbusters West Coast uniform-examined the site. Their usual police liasons-Detectives Zachary Fox and Vance Dirkman-were standing close by.<p>

"That's what the witness said-the tornado 'snatched them up' just over there." Fox pointed.

Fritz was studying his PKE Meter. "I'm definitely getting a strong epsilon signature, indicating a dimensional transit."

"They really have been sent to the Flip Side, haven't they?" Jeremy asked.

"I won't know for sure until I send these readings to the Professor, but it looks that way." Fritz nodded glumly.

Not far away, in the shadows, they were being watched.

_They were there before...when I tried to send Tohnloq to his just reward..._ the Soultracker mused to itself. _There are...strange auras about both of them._

The Soultracker stiffened. The sensation like ice water, the same as before.

_What I am feeling...is not here!_

* * *

><p><strong>Ghostbusters Central<strong>  
><strong>New York City<strong>

* * *

><p><strong><em>Veedramon<em>****_:_**_ You there, Professor?  
><strong>ProfESpengler<strong>**:** Affirmative, Fritz. Go ahead.  
><strong>Veedramon<strong>**:** We got a good reading on the transit.  
><strong>Veedramon<strong>**:** Sending now _

_Accept Download from pke3_.net? _

_Yes _

_Download Complete _

**_ProfESpengler_****_:_**_ Data received, Fritz. Stand by.  
><strong>Veedramon<strong>**:** Yes, Sir. _

Egon had pulled out an old PKE Meter-a "Model 2.0", the type he'd used from late 1983 (shortly after the Gozer case) then throughout the entire operating lifespan of the original Ghostbusters team; it was only when the Extreme Ghostbusters formed that he retired the design (and even then, the "Model 2.1" used the same casing)

"I bet I know what that is..." Ray realized. "The meter you had when Professor Epimetheus disappeared." Meaning the second time, back in 1991.

* * *

><p><em>"We tell him most of the truth-that we confirmed Professor Epimetheus is now trapped in an alternate dimension, that the entities that attacked the Statue of Liberty were from that dimension, and that the portal was destroyed when we sent them back where they came from." Egon answered. "If that isn't enough for him, then there's not much else we can do about it." <em>

_Egon__ held up his meter. "I'll have to analyze the data, but I may have gotten a reading on the configuration of the exact dimensional shunt. One way or another, I do not think we have seen the last of Professor Ian Epimetheus."_

* * *

><p>"Correct." Egon answered. "I stopped using this meter immediately afterward, to keep the signature fresh in the system, but of course, not long after that we went out of business again. I was in no position to do anything with the data."<p>

"Then why not when we started up?" Kylie asked. "You know we would have helped with whatever you needed."

"By then, some of the...neglect of the previous six years had taken their toll on the data." Egon shook his head. "And it wasn't until GBI was fully reconstituted that I would have the resources to follow up. The use of dimensional portal technology is extremely expensive."

"But now you have a fresh reading!" Ray realized.

"Correct." Egon nodded. "But first, we have to be certain it's the same dimension. I need to compare the data with the earlier reading to prevent any rash action." He pushed a few buttons, causing a few more beeps and chirps.

Egon's brow furrowed. "The readings are completely different. The epsilon signatures aren't synchronized, and..." He stroked his chin.

**_ProfESpengler_****_:_**_ Fritz, I'm sending you a set of readings. Tell me if I see what I think I see.  
><strong>Veedramon<strong>**:** ?  
><strong>Veedramon<strong>**:** Of course_

_Send File epimetheus_1991_gbny to pke3_gbwc _

_File Received _

A few minutes passed.

"What is it?" Ray asked.

Egon didn't answer.

**_Veedramon_****_:_**_ It looks like a delta signature.  
><strong>ProfESpengler<strong>**:** That's what I was afraid of.  
><strong>ProfESpengler<strong>**:** I didn't notice it at the time, but that was before your paper.  
><strong>Veedramon<strong>**:** ... _

"Professor Epimetheus may have been sent through time, is that what you're saying?" Kylie asked.

"It's possible." Ray nodded. "Though not all temporal events necessarily involve time travel, per se." He sighed. "Now I really wish we had a speed dial to Delphia or Professor..." he stopped. "Professor...dammit, why am I blanking on his name all of a sudden?"

Egon went back to the monitor. "We will have to leave that for another time, pardon the phrase. I'm now comparing Fritz's reading with the one's you took, Ray... The epsilon sine wave shows a deviation of 2%." he finally pronounced. "I screened it for residue of Elizabeth's PK trace, which may have distorted the signal due to her spell, and the deviation declines to nil."

"So yeah, Peter and Jeff have gone to where ever Mick and the others went." Ray nodded.

"Great. So what do we do with this, then?" Kylie asked.

Ray and Egon exchanged an enigmatic smirk. "I know you just can't wait to fire it up." Ray told him.

* * *

><p><strong>Station 23<strong>  
><strong>Los Diablos<strong>

* * *

><p>Ulforce looked at one of the proton packs like a kid on Christmas morning. Aidan glared slightly suspiciously.<p>

"A real Ghostbuster proton pack..." Ulforce mused, clearly wanting to pick it up and try it out. "This is incredible. I never thought I'd see one up close like this!"

"Yeah, well, don't touch it." Aidan said.

Mick was just finishing his relaying of the day's events. "...And here I thought the giant budgie was going to be the low point of the day, right?"

Ellie seemed to be paying rather rapt attention to Mick. "Sorry I'm such bad company."

Mick startled. "That's not what I...oh...okay...yeah, that was a joke."

Ellie giggled.

Rose and Jason looked at each other. "Oh boy...we didn't have Mick yet last Halloween." Rose noted. "I guess all things considered we should have expected this..."

Jason shook his head. "Ay-yi-yi...if we tell Andy and J, Mick'll never hear the end of it..." He then slowly grinned at the thought.

"Last time we saw you, Ellie..." Rose spoke up. "You were being chased by the Peoplebusters West Coast. You said you'd only 'heard of' the Ghostbusters. Now you are one?"

Ellie nodded. "Once I got back to Los Diablos, I ran into..." she looked sideways, a cloud coming into her expression. "Victor. I wasn't sure I could trust him at first, until he introduced me to the Professor."

"The Professor?" Jason asked. "Egon Spengler?"

Ellie shook her head. "The leader of the Flip Side Ghostbusters. Professor Ian Epimetheus."

* * *

><p><strong>Boo York<strong>

* * *

><p>"Pardon me. Coming through." Jeff said, flying through two entities dripping orange slime.<p>

The entities shrieked "PEOPLE! AHHH!"

At the main desk, the decaying counterpart of Morton P. Grout was arguing with a panicked customer. "I keep telling you, there is no such thing as people! It's all mass hysteria!"

Jeff tsked. "Wow. Your toupee is even worse than the real Grout's."

The customer screamed "I'M CALLING THE PEOPLEBUSTERS!" as he ran away.

"Now look what you've done, you...you...Hooligan!" Flip Side Grout snarled. "Those idiots always make a mess!"

"Don't worry-I was just leaving." Jeff said, truthfully.

Jeff got outside, and melted into the shadows, berating himself for being so "public" at the Flip Side Sedgewick. But the disorientation of the dimensional jump was fading, and he was back on his game.

_The Extreme Peoplebusters grabbed Venkman...I know where they are, probably, but I gotta remember: I'm outnumbered, and don't have any weapons. Not even an N-Saber. Though from what the old case files said, that stuff wouldn't work here anyway. Ye Gods, this place sucks._

_I can guess that the rest of the New York crew will try to figure out a way to get here...but how much time will that take? How much time does Venkman have before they...well, I don't even know what they want with him._

Jeff smirked. _This is gonna be the ultimate test of my ninja abilities...I love it!_

"Hello there."

Jeff jumped and spun around, assuming a defensive posture. _Okay...maybe I'm not at the top of my game yet..._

The man watched Jeff with an open, disarming expression on his aged, lined face, which was topped by snowy white hair. Peeking out from under his dark trenchcoat was an approximation of a tan Ghostbusters New York uniform; more significantly, the red seal of GBNY was affixed to his lapel.

"I know you're probably rather disoriented." the man continued, pleasantly. "Welcome to, as a friend of a former student of mine once put it, the 'Flip Side of the Spiritual Divide'. I'm Ian Epimetheus, and I'm here to help you."

* * *

><p>To Be Continued<p>

* * *

><p>Ghostbusters West Coast Staff: Afterlife Of The Party, Fritz Baugh, egon901, Andy Harness, Jason Knetge, Miss Janine, Aidan Munroe, Mick Nielson, Kyle Stevens, TheRazorsEdge<br>Editorial Staff: Dr. Vincent Belmont, EGB Fan  
>Additional Beta: Kingpin, OgreBBQ, Brian Reilly<p>

* * *

><p>The Peoplebusters created by Tony Marino in the RGB episode "Flip Side" (RGB-402). Professor Epimetheus created by Barry Peterson for Now Comics; he was mentioned in the 1992 3-D Annual, but never appeared in print.<p>

Liz Hawthorne Stantz created by OgreBBQ.

I am so going to Hell for putting King Remils in a story. He came from one of Marvel UK's stupidest stories, in issue 22 of their RGB comic.

Some material excerpted from "Pandora's Box, Part 4" Written by Fritz Baugh, based off an unfinished story by Barry Peterson.

Soultracker created by Kyle Stevens; developed by Fritz Baugh

* * *

><p>#3742-120708u<br>106


	4. Chapter 4

**Extreme Ghostbusters/Ghostbusters West Coast:**  
><strong>Flip Side War<strong>  
><strong>Part Four<strong>

From the files of Dr. Fritz V. Baugh, GBWC CEO  
>GBI Case File No. GBI-2007-25310

* * *

><p><strong>Previously<strong>

After finishing a seemingly routine case, four members of the Ghostbusters West Coast-Mick Nielson, Jason Knetge, Aidan Munroe, and Rose Prevost-are snatched up by a tornado and deposited on the Flip Side, the Bizarro World that the original Ghostbusters visited years ago.

They encounter the Peoplebuster counterparts of Mick and Jason, and are helped to safety by an eerily familiar man named Victor Ulforce. Ulforce, in turn, takes them to Ellie, the Flip Side's living counterpart of GBWC Spirit Liason Rachel Leavenworth.

In New York City, at virtually the same time, the debut concert of Oscar Wallance Venkman's band, Mood Slime, is interrupted by the appearance of the Extreme Peoplebusters. The Peoplebusters kidnap Peter Venkman and return to their home dimension.

They had a stowaway, though, GBWC and Nightsquad member Jeff Nash, who runs into the Peoplebusters' longtime enemy: Professor Ian Epimetheus. The same Professor Epimetheus who had once been the mentor to GBI co-founder Egon Spengler

* * *

><p><strong>A Storage Area At JFK Airport<strong>  
><strong>New York City<strong>

* * *

><p>The darkness was split by the headlights of a modified 1959 Cadillac Miller Meteor, cutting the gloom that a garage door had been standing guard over.<p>

"...The dimensional readings are useless all by themselves, but fortunately, we do have means of traversing the dimensional barrier." Egon finished. He was now clad in his legendary blue Ghostbusters flight suit.

Ray, Roland, and Kylie were with him, also in uniform. Roland looked confused at the contents of the garage, a small, swivel-winged aircraft bearing the Ghostbusters logo on its wing. "The ECTO-4?" he asked. "It's a masterpiece of experimental aircraft design, but you're telling me it can jump dimensions, too?"

Slimer floated nearby, having come along when Ray mentioned that they "Were going to go save Peter." He darted into the ECTO-4.

"Oh yeah!" Ray said, rubbing his hands with excitement. "Well, I mean, it did. It was originally built with the most advanced version of Egon's transdimensional gate technology. We used it to rescue Shannon Phillips from Astorath back in 1990..."

"1989" Egon corrected simply.

"...And then to jump to the shard realm of Ceratel to fight Nurtog." Ray continued, unabated. "But then it got wrecked when Nurtog used it against us to get back to New York City. We managed to salvage enough of it to get back ourselves, but after that it couldn't transport Freddy Krueger to a dream plane."

Slimer emerged from the ECTO-4, a look of disappointment-he'd apparently expected Venkman to be waiting inside the vehicle.

Roland and Kylie rolled their eyes at Ray's odd metaphor. "I remember the dinosaurs attacking downtown." Kylie mentioned. "Grandma Rose insisted later it was mass hysteria or a movie being shot."

"We weren't able to replace the dimensional warp drive, because building it in the first place involved going into debt for a quarter of a million dollars." Egon explained.

"SuperCard. Don't leave your home dimension without it." Ray quipped. When they all looked at him, he added "Peter's not here-somebody had to say it."

Egon continued. "And for a long time after that, it was a moot point." He produced some blueprints. "But now, the financing isn't a problem, just the time and technical expertise to rebuild it."

"The plan's drawn up and everything!" Ray smirked. "Good-means all the math is done."

"I don't think any of us would appreciate a Tunguska sized blast, no." Egon deadpanned. "This is the part I'm going to need your help with, Ray, and Roland, especially-it will take time. There's no way around that."

"Then we'd better get to work." Roland nodded.

* * *

><p><strong>Los Diablos<strong>  
><strong>The Flip Side<strong>

* * *

><p>Mick looked at Ellie. "He's gone?"<p>

Ellie nodded. "He said he was doing a quick recon of Perishing Park. He shouldn't be back for at least an hour."

Mick exhaled. "Good. Because Ulforce is creeping the heck out of all of us."

Ellie sighed. "I was as shocked as any of you when I first met him, after our last meeting on your world. I don't know how he got here, and why he looks different. I can only imagine you've all been worried..."

The Ghostbusters looked at each other. "I think the situation is more complicated than you realize." Aidan said. "Victor Ulforce may look like the Fritz Baugh we work with, but our Fritz is still at home. We all talked to him on the radio just before we got here."

Ellie's eyes went wider.

"Believe me, if he'd been gone the last eleven months, Chelsea would have a lot of explaining to do about that baby she's going to have any day now." Mick added.

"The resemblance isn't perfect." Rose added. "He's got longer hair. Maybe...I don't know, a little younger looking, maybe."

"But what about the big one?" Jason asked. "Ulforce still got both legs?"

Ellie nodded. "I've seen him without shoes on." She looked uncomfortable. "I did try to ask him about this world's Fritz Baugh, but he didn't want to talk about it. He got kind of angry, actually."

"Just when you think this place can't get any weirder, it does." Jason shook his head.

"Ulforce works with Professor Epimetheus, the leader of the Flip Side Ghostbusters." Ellie continued. "I met the Professor just once-he's spent most of his time since I joined in Boo York. He said he saw signs of 'troubling things' going on, which seemed to get worse after our last meeting. Our Peoplebuster Dr. Baugh has spent most of the intervening time there, most notably."

"I bet they're up to something." Aidan mused. "Our getting sucked here might be part of it."

"Professor Epimetheus was one of Professor Spengler's-our Egon Spengler's-mentors during his college days." Rose mentioned. "And I swear Janine mentioned somebody named Ulforce once...in passing, though. She seemed a little vague on it herself."

Mick brooded for a minute. "Ulforce creeps us out, but he's not the priority. Getting home is-unless our being here really is part of some bigger plot the Peoplebusters are cooking up, in which case stopping it would be more important. But we can't do either one until we know for sure."

Mick put a hand on Ellie's shoulder. "Can you get us into contact with Professor Epimetheus?"

* * *

><p><strong>Boo York<strong>  
><strong>The Flip Side<strong>

* * *

><p>"No f-ing way!" Jeff exclaimed.<p>

Professor Epimetheus looked at him quizzically. "Oh?"

"I...er...know this place back in the Real World." Jeff answered. He didn't really want to explain the whole thing right now, but the Brooklyn firehouse that he was being led through the wall of was, in fact, the counterpart of the one Jeff's other team-Ghostbusters Nightsquad-had used as their first headquarters (Prior to being blown up by a Samhaine cult in 2003, anyway).

"There now." Epimetheus exhaled, settling into a chair at the reception desk. "This place is safe enough. It's a bad neighborhood-none of the Peoplebusters really like to come here."

"Thanks." Jeff nodded.

"Now then..." Epimetheus raised an eyebrow in a way Jeff found oddly familiar. "You don't seem quite as shocked at your predicament as most new arrivals. You even seemed to have some idea as to what this place is and who I am, I daresay."

Jeff scratched his head. "It's because I do. My name's Jeff Nash-Doctor Jeff Nash. I work for GBI-Ghostbusters International. Your old student, Professor Egon Spengler, is one of my bosses."

Epimetheus livened up. "You know Egon? And it's 'Professor' Spengler now?" The older man grinned.

"He taught at a community college during the Nineties." Jeff answered. He doesn't anymore, but the title sorta stuck. I think its like...well, there are a lot of Doctors in GBI, but hes the only one we call Professor. Maybe a bit of the most equal among the many.

I admit, the whole reason I chose this place is because it reminded me of the one Egon and his friends use. Epimetheus got a curious gleam in his eye. When I last visited New York, I met a young lady who seemed rather taken with him, a Miss Melnitz...

Jeff smirked. You mean Mrs. Spengler?

Epimetheus chuckled. I hoped he'd come around.

Jeff rolled his eyes. Yeah, well, I understand there's a lot of stories there...

Epimetheus coughed. And the others? Raymond, Peter, and Winston?

Jeffs featured darkened. Well, actually, that's kind of what brought me here...

* * *

><p><strong>Ghostbusters Central West<strong>  
><strong>Los Angeles<strong>

* * *

><p>Chelsea popped a mint into her mouth as she listened to the phone. <em>"Professor Spengler told us to get back to headquarters and wait for more information there. Apparently he has a plan for getting Doctor Venkman back, and it might help us find out what happened to Mick and the others."<em>

"All well and good, Fritz." Chelsea nodded. "But does that mean we're not going home tonight?"

_"Well, I'm probably not going to."_ Fritz replied, a note of disappointment in his voice. _"I can drop you off and head back, assuming you don't want to stay in the old room tonight."_

Chelsea laughed, and rubbed her swollen belly. "Normally, maybe...but in my condition, our room is way too far away from the bathroom."

Fritz chuckled at the other end.

"Looks like things are going okay in New York with the concert, though." Chelsea added, craning a look at the TV. "It came back on just after you guys left."

_"...Fans are cheering as Mood Slime walks off the stage. I'd say that despite the technical difficulties, and the surprise appearance of some of Oscar Venkman's father's Ghostbuster friends in some sort of weird stage show, this concert was just the sort of success the hot new band needed! We were supposed to be interviewing Peter Venkman after the show, but we can't seem to find him..."_

Andy Harness walked into the reception area. He had a proton pack on, and was fiddling with the monitor box that normally attached to his utility belt. "Is Fritters and J gonna be back, soon? This whole situation is just creepy as hell, and the sooner we get back together the better..."

* * *

><p>The Soul Tracker paused. The sign on the building was known to him. Known to his Master-and he had been told not to confront the men and women wearing it again. Not without the Necromancer's approval.<p>

But the evil he sensed...the darkness...

* * *

><p>Otter looked to and fro. <em>All alone...at last...<em>

He reached under his work bench and pulled out a package. Slowly, quietly, he started to unwrap it. _This is the perfect time since they're all watching the concert..._

His face was beaming as he gently pulled a copy of _Playboy _magazine. It had taken him a lot of scrounging on Ebay to get ahold of it-a replacement for the magazine one of his coworkers had destroyed nearly three years before.

"Oh Jenny...together again..." Otter purred, tenderly flipping to the part of the magazine that he most wanted. He knew now, which he didn't then, that the pictures were photoshopped...but he still wanted them anyway...

His contemplation was shaken by the crash of shattering glass, and an internal security alarm.

He hastily stuffed the magazine back into its box and under his work bench before running off to see what was wrong.

* * *

><p>"Chelsea?" Fritz said suddenly. "Chelsea?"<p>

"What's going on?" Jeremy asked.

"There was a loud crash, then the line went dead." Fritz answered simply.

A tone started to sound on Fritz's cel phone; the display flashed "001 INTERNAL SECURITY ALERT"

Without another word, Jeremy flipped on the Ecto-Cruiser's siren and gunned the accelerator.

* * *

><p>Andy shook off the shock of the loud noise.<p>

The front window of the reception area was now strewn about the floor in a million pieces. Chairs and the television were knocked over.

Chelsea lay against the back wall, of questionable consciousness, the wheelchair she'd been using tipped over beside her; from the angle she lay, her swollen, pregnant belly was distressingly prominent.

Andy jabbed the safety of his neutrona wand.

Standing in the middle of the mess was a tall, athletic figure wearing a shabby, tattered green costume that swirled around him; the cut of the outfit struck Andy as oddly familiar, but he couldn't take the time to consider from where. The intruder would have been an attractive human man, if his skin wasn't freakishly blue and topped off with a clashing shock of bright orange hair.

"Hold it right there, Smurf Boy! I hope you got a good insurance plan-those picture windows aren't cheap, you know!" Andy shouted. _I gotta deal with this joker quick and help Chelsea..._

The intruder looked at Andy with its blank yellow eyes. "Calcent is near. You will tell me where he is."

"Calcent?" Andy repeated. He knew he knew the name, but it just wasn't processing yet. Too much else was going on.

_Ask questions later!_Andy chided himself, firing.

The proton beam splashed off the intruder, doing it no harm in the slightest.

"Oh shit..." Andy realized, as it all fit together.

"You will take me to the Eye Collector..." the intruder said, eyes glowing.

* * *

><p>Otter ran into the garage. "Harness! What the Jehosephat is going on? Are the alarms...uh-oh..."<p>

Otter's indignant question trailed off as he noticed Andy wasn't alone-the blue man with the bright orange hair and glowing yellow eyes was with him.

Fortunately, Otter had grabbed a proton pistol he kept in his workshop for just such an occasion. The team had been reluctant to let him have it after the time he nearly shot one of Kyle Stevens' cats, but eventually acquiesced. _And I'll get that furry demon next time it tries to crap on my tools, too..._

"Freeze!" Otter shouted, brandishing the weapon.

"You are of no consequence." the blue man snorted dismissively.

Otter fired the pistol.

He hadn't seen Andy's attack, and thus didn't know how ineffective it had been; his own shot was no more helpful.

"Well, crap, did I break this thing again?"

The blue man gestured, and Otter vanished from sight.

* * *

><p><strong>Ghostbusters Central<strong>  
><strong>New York City<strong>

* * *

><p>"Jess calm down any?" Janine asked Dana, putting a cup of coffee in front of her.<p>

Dana nodded. "A little...I left her with Oscar. Oscar was going to duck the press until tomorrow anyway."

"More importantly, how are you holding up?" Janine asked.

Dana sighed. "I don't know...it just hasn't hit me really, I think. I don't know...after things like the Anaheim Theatre, the time a pyramid sprung up in LA, and the boys taking a trip to Gozer's dimension, I feel like I'm almost starting to get used to it."

Janine chuckled.

Liz sat at the table with them, looking through a book. "Right about now I wish I hadn't spent the last twenty years avoiding all the weirdoes in House Merinita. The energy at the event seemed to be Faerie in nature...and they're the experts on that."

"I don't think Peter ever mentioned any little elves baking cookies when he went there before." Dana quipped.

Liz looked up. "Faerie is one of the four realms of power identified by Hermetic scholars. Werewolves call it 'The Wyld'. Faerie power is influenced by human imagination. Stories, dreams. Not all dreams and stories are about little elves baking cookies. If you think about it, it explains a lot: the Flip Side is like the story of Ray, Peter, and Egon retold by Tim Burton."

Janine laughed despite herself. Fortunately, Dana managed a dry chuckle at it too, so she didn't feel completely out of line.

"The thing is...remember that some of those faerie tales have some very dark endings. Not everyone goes home and lives happily ever after." Liz closed the book and sipped her coffee. "The danger is just as real as if they were going back to Gozer's place."

* * *

><p><strong>Ghostbusters Central West<strong>  
><strong>Long Angeles<strong>

* * *

><p>The Soultracker strode into the wrecked reception area. <em>Perhaps this monster felt the blast of power too...did it draw it out?<em>

He heard a gasp, and turned toward it quickly, sword drawn.

There was a woman covered with sweat, and obviously very pregnant. She was shakily holding a gun of some sort-a gun, he realized, was identical to the one a Ghostbuster had brandished at him a year before.

"I am not your enemy." he said simply.

She doubled over in pain, an anguished cry escaping from her.

The Soultracker hesitated. For so long thinking his human emotions were as dead as his reanimated body, but now...was this an ember of compassion he felt? Could he help this woman?

He shook it out of his mind angrily. "Your friends will come to help you soon enough. My mission is my only concern."

"...wait..." she said weakly, collapsing again.

For half a second, he almost did.

* * *

><p>Andy remembered...almost three years before...January 2005...<p>

* * *

><p><em>His opponent was tall, and pale, dressed in shabby, tattered dark clothes. A pouch was slung over its shoulder, and a bloody carving knife was gripped in its right hand. Its face was strangely indistinct, with phosphorescent green eyes glowing from under the foul-smelling fluids dripping from it. "Perhaps your eyes belong in my collection too..." the creature quipped menacingly.<br>_

* * *

><p><em>"According to the archive, the description partially matches a drawing of a Nineteenth century legend, when Los Angeles was still owned by Spain...there were three desperadoes who terrorized the local countryside. There real names were never discovered, but the Native Americans call them Darmond the Tormentor, Calent the Eye Collector, and the Blemisher." Kyle read.<em>

* * *

><p><em>Is this guy one of Calcent's buddies?<em> Andy asked himself. _Which one? And why can't I MAKE MYSELF MOVE THE WAY I WANT TO, DAMMIT!_

"This door?" the intruder asked.

"Yes" Andy's voice answered, robotically, despite Andy's every effort to stop it.

"Open it." the intruder commanded.

Andy jerkily extracted his key ring from his utility belt, and opened the door.

Inside was the core of the facility. To the right, the backup power generators and the main computer core housing the team's server.

To the left, the large, round, red shape of the Ecto Containment Unit sat humming evenly. To one side of the unit was the monitoring and maintenance station for the ECU. To the other...

Andy tried not to think about any of it. _If he's the Blemisher or the Tormentor, it's probably what he's after. If he can read my mind as well as he can control my body..._

"The cold..." the intruder mused. "Here." He walked toward the spot Andy was trying so hard not to think about-the freezer in which Calcent the Eye Collector had been interred since January of 2005.

"The power this night awakened me, and I saw that you were gone." the intruder spoke to the freezer. "I followed you to here...if I did not bring you back, the Tormentor will be displeased when he awakens..."

_Heh. I was right. Figured all of that out without Stevens or Creepy Freeze here to do it for me. You must be the Blemisher, I guess. Heh._

Fat lot of good this all does me

"Open it." the Blemisher commanded.

Andy's face knotted in concentration as he tried to stop himself from complying. To not throw the switches to the freezer, and the internal speaker keeping Jackie Wilson on continuous loop. To not be part of letting one of the most horrific creatures Andy had fought in five years of Ghostbusting be free again.

_F- YOU F- YOU F- YOU!_Andy's interior monolog shouted.

His hand, unfortunately, reached for the fateful switches.

* * *

><p>If Winston Zeddemore had seen Jeremy and Fritz run into the battered reception area, he probably would have chewed them out for rushing in with no idea what they were doing like a couple of rookies instead of four-year veterans.<p>

Fortunately for them, of course, Winston was on the other side of the continent.

"Chelsea!" Fritz cried in horror, seeing his wife lying on the floor.

Jeremy didn't hesitate. "Get her out of here. I'll handle...well, whatever the f- this is!"

Any other circumstance, Fritz probably would have pulled rank and argued, but concern for his wife and unborn daughter understandably overrode anything else. "Can you move?" he asked her.

She nodded weakly, and let him lead her to the Ecto-Cruiser.

Jeremy didn't move until he heard the car's engine gunning, and the sound of it's sirens ordering other vehicles out of its way.

Jeremy entered the garage area a little more cautiously (more in line with procedure that wouldn't have gotten his ass chewed out by Mister Zeddemore), and the sound of clicking entered his ears. _The Geiger Counters?_He was about to investigate further when the door to the core of the facility flew open, and a man in black was hurled into one of the standby Ecto-Cruisers.

"The Soul Tracker?" Jeremy realized. He brandished his proton gun. "Hold it right there!"

There was an unearthly snarl, and a figure Jeremy didn't recognize lept out of the ECU room; it tried to punch the Soul Tracker, but his prey dodged. The Ecto-Cruiser took the brunt of it instead.

_I do not wanna be here when Mick sees that..._

The Soul Tracker swung his sword; the Blemisher (though Jeremy wouldn't discover his name until later) disappeared, reappearing behind the Soul Tracker.

_The other guy looks like Bad News too...which one do I help, if either of them? And where's Andy?_

"This battle will only bring more destruction to this place." The Soul Tracker said, turning slightly to Jeremy. "I will deal with this accursed one-and I must do it quickly. The nuclear fire he contains is draining my own power."

The Soul Tracker swung his sword. There was a blast of light, and when it faded, both supernatural entities were gone.

"What the f- just happened?" Jeremy cried.

There was another flash of light, and Otter appeared, blinking confusedly.

"J? What happened to the color nightmare?"

"Search me..." Jeremy answered. They both turned to see Andy stagger out of the ECU room, and then fall to the floor.

* * *

><p><strong>Boo York City<strong>  
><strong>The Flip Side<strong>

* * *

><p><em>"...Living versions of Mick, Jason, and even Aidan-all in one piece!"<em> the Peoplebuster version of Andy Harness (sporting a decayed appearance and a Yale ball cap) told them from the screen. _"And someone else, too, a woman."_

"Fascinating..." the Peoplebuster version of Fritz Baugh mused, rubbing his chin.

"Where are they now?" Peoplebuster Winston asked.

_"Well, they got away."_ Andy paused. _"It was Ulforce, Fritters. He got'em to safety."_

Fritz snarled. "That blasted nondead doppelganger gets all the more vexing, especially after last Life Day..."

"You're the only guy I know with two meat selves, Frito." Peoplebuster Eduardo commented. "What does that mean?"

"I don't know." Fritz seethed.

_"These guys popped up, it sounds, right about the same time you sent the New York guys to the meat world."_ Peoplebuster Kyle Stevens, standing beside Andy, noted. _"You think this is a coincidence?"_

"Unlikely." Fritz answered. "I always knew the experiment had the possibility of creating a random counterportal on the meat world. This is a rather interesting symmetry, though..."

The conversation was broken by anguished shouts. "No more! Gaaah!"

"Silly Pee-tah..." a second voice chided. "Remils just want youssa to get big and strong. So keep eating!"

_"So what are your orders?"_Andy asked.

Fritz and Winston glanced at each other, and nodded.

"Find the Ghostbusters." Winston said. "And bring them to us."

"The more hostages we have, the stronger bait we have to lure Epimetheus out of hiding." Fritz added.

There was another anguished shout.

"Especially as it looks like Remils is gonna make sure the one we have doesn't last much longer."

And evil grin appeared on Andy's face. _"This is where the fun begins..."_

* * *

><p>To Be Continued<p>

* * *

><p>Ghostbusters West Coast Staff: Afterlife Of The Party, Fritz Baugh, egon901, Andy Harness, Jason Knetge, Miss Janine, Aidan Munroe, Mick Nielson, Kyle Stevens, TheRazorsEdge<br>Editorial Staff: Dr. Vincent Belmont, EGB Fan  
>Additional Beta: Kingpin, OgreBBQ, Brian Reilly<p>

* * *

><p>The Peoplebusters created by Tony Marino in the RGB episode "Flip Side" (RGB-402). Professor Epimetheus created by Barry Peterson for Now Comics; he was mentioned in the 1992 3-D Annual, but never appeared in print.<p>

Liz Hawthorne Stantz created by OgreBBQ.

I am so going to Hell for putting King Remils in a story. He came from one of Marvel UK's stupidest stories, in issue 22 of their RGB comic.

ECTO-4 created by James Van Hise and John Tobias. It appeared frequently in the Now Comics series. Mention is made of the events of "The Father Thing Trilogy" (RGB#9-11) and "Wild In The Streets" (RGB#20, 22)

Soultracker, Blemisher, and Calcent created by Kyle Stevens; developed by Fritz Baugh. Some material previously appeared in "Act Two"

* * *

><p>#3779-40509u<br>108


	5. Chapter 5

**Extreme Ghostbusters/Ghostbusters West Coast:**  
><strong>Flip Side War<strong>  
><strong>Part Five<strong>

From the files of Dr. Fritz V. Baugh, GBWC CEO  
>GBI Case File No. GBI-2007-25310

* * *

><p><strong>Previously<strong>

* * *

><p>After finishing a seemingly routine case, four members of the Ghostbusters West Coast-Mick Nielson, Jason Knetge, Aidan Munroe, and Rose Prevost-are snatched up by a tornado and deposited on the Flip Side, the Bizarro World that the original Ghostbusters visited years ago.<p>

They encounter the Peoplebuster counterparts of Mick and Jason, and are helped to safety by a man named Victor Ulforce, who bears an eerie resemblance to GBWC CEO Fritz Baugh. Ulforce, in turn, takes them to Ellie, the Flip Side's living counterpart of GBWC Spirit Liaison Rachel Leavenworth.

In New York City, at virtually the same time, the debut concert of Oscar Wallance Venkman's band, Mood Slime, is interrupted by the appearance of the Extreme Peoplebusters. The Peoplebusters kidnap Peter Venkman and return to their home dimension.

They had a stowaway, though, GBWC and Nightsquad member Jeff Nash, who runs into the Peoplebusters' longtime enemy: Professor Ian Epimetheus. The same Professor Epimetheus who had once been the mentor to GBI co-founder Egon Spengler.

The selfsame Egon Spengler who has a plan to rescue his old friend, by rebuilding the ECTO-4's dimensional warp drive.

* * *

><p><strong>Los Diablos<strong>  
><strong>The Flip Side<strong>

* * *

><p>Ellie looked at UIforce. "We obviously need to get into contact with Professor Epimetheus. What are the chances we can?"<p>

"It's difficult." Ulforce answered, rubbing his chin. It wasn't lost on the GBWC members that the gesture was as reminiscent of their CEO as Ulforce's entire face was. "Maverick Tanner visits Boo York every couple of months or so, and takes messages back and forth then if needed, but he's got to be careful. Peoplebuster Nash knows him, which makes him acting as a double agent dangerous..."

Mick looked a bit surprised. "Our Jeff knows a Maverick Tanner too. A minor wizard or something-we better tell Jeff when we get back. Make sure ours isn't pulling something on us..."

Jason looked up. "Is it just me...or is it getting colder in here all of a sudden?"

Aidan exhaled, a stream of frosted breath coming from his mouth. "No...I'd say you're right..."

"Packs!" Mick cried, and the four displaced Ghostbusters scrambled for their equipment.

"There's something happening..." Ulforce said. "I'm sensing a continuum flux of some sort..."

There was an explosion of ice in the middle of the room, coating the entire basement with a thin layer of frost. At the center of the ice were two men, one young, one old.

Mick, Rose, Aidan, and Jason were shocked to see their teammate Jeff Nash, still dressed in a Mood Slime t-shirt.

Ellie and Ulforce were just as shocked to see Professor Ian Epimetheus there.

"Well, that could have gone better..." Jeff said, collapsing to his knees.

"Victor! Ellie!" Epimetheus exclaimed. He waved before leaning over to help Jeff back up. "You got us where we needed to be, Jeffrey. I'd say that was a success."

"This whole place is screwy." Jeff shook his head. "It's like my powers are superamped, but harder to control. I got us here without any of the stuff I need back home-and got you along with me, which I couldn't do back home either-but man, look at this mess."

"And we ain't cleaning it up for you." Rose snarked.

Jeff looked up, incredulously, the daze from the transit fading enough to realize that four of his West Coast comrades were, impossibly, standing in this room a dimension away from where he expected them to be. "What the frak?"

"We could ask you the same thing, Buddy." Jason replied, helping Epimetheus move the exhausted Jeff away from the ice patch. "It's been one of those days..."

* * *

><p><strong>Boo York City<strong>

* * *

><p>"Yousa needs to eat!" Remils said cheerfully, stuffing Venkman's mouth with steamed broccoli. "So yousa gets all big and strong like Remils!"<p>

_This is nuts!_ Venkman thought to himself, gagging, trying not to vomit it up. He'd done that once already, and Remils had just stuffed it down his throat again. _Is this how a Ghostbusting Hero of Millions meets his end? Overfed to death by a pint-sized maniac?_

Worse, Venkman realized...was it even really possible for him to die here? On their first visit, they'd found refugees from their own world who were alive, well, and unchanged after decades. Egon's old mentor, Professor Epimetheus, hadn't aged at all in the thirteen years he'd been here. In his mind's eye, a vision appeared of his possible future: Jabba the Hutt, but with better hair.

With that, he lost the battle with the steamed broccoli.

"Oh no..." Remils said worriedly, scooping the semi-digested stuff up. "Weesa have to try again..."

* * *

><p>"The Peoplebusters West Coast will find the Ghostbusters there." Peoplebuster Fritz said resolutely. "Where are the others?"<p>

"Out on a call." Peoplebuster Janine answered. "We got a call from the Sedgewick. Some meat with ice powers froze up a honeymoon suite; probably no big deal."

Fritz stroked his skeletal nose as the sound of Venkman screaming for mercy wafted into the room.

"REMILS IS HAVING TOO MUCH FUN!" Peoplebuster Chelsea's head said from a nearby counter.

"Let him." Janine chuckled. "He used to try to get the real Peter to eat all the time. He really misses him."

Fritz suddenly convulsed. He grabbed his head, then pulled out his Bio Energy Meter.

"Something's happened..." he said. "There's an energy signature consistent with a dimensional transit event."

"Oh crap." Janine snarled.

"Get the others back here now." Fritz barked. "The pissant meat at the Sedgewick can wait for another time!"

* * *

><p><strong>The Skies Above Boo York<strong>

* * *

><p>There was a shudder...a pull...the sky shimmered, and then glowed.<p>

With an indescribable sound, space and time pulled apart.

The glow faded, leaving a small, silvery aircraft behind.

"Dimensional Transit-Complete!" Egon shouted.

"That's nice." Winston replied lackadaisically. "Now all I gotta do is keep us from hitting the ground with a great big splat."

"Yeah. Some rescue that would be." Garrett rolled his eyes.

Egon, Winston, Eduardo, Kylie, Garrett, and Roland were all seated aboard the ECTO-4, the small aircraft the original Ghostbusters had built during their second heyday in the early 1990's.

Egon was nominally the designated pilot of the vehicle, but as Winston had earned a pilot's license in the intervening years, Egon instead had instead focussed on the dimensional transit itself. The transdimensional drive had been assembled hastily, and it was agreed by all involved that having the device's designer (and the only one who really understood how it worked) not divide his attention was the best course of action.

The ECTO-4's seating space was limited; assuming they would need to provide Venkman and Jeff transit home, only Winston could join Egon and the Extreme Team, much to Ray's dismay. There would otherwise simply not be enough room; they were going over the plane's comfortable limit of capacity as it was.

"Are the controls working?" Roland asked.

"Sluggish." Winston replied through gritted teeth. "But considering how this place f-s with some of our other stuff, that's better than it could be."

Egon's hand was ready on the trigger for the ECTO-4's emergency parachutes.

After a few tense moments, the vehicle seemed to straighten and stop shuddering. "I think I got control back." Winston wiped his brow.

"Acclimation is taking place." Egon nodded, checking a few more readings. "It's taking on the properties we associate with ectoplasm back home-you could say it's responding to your will as much as your piloting skill."

"Whatever works." Winston replied. "Now where we gonna land?"

"We need some distance from downtown." Egon replied. "'l'll need the time to recalibrate the drive for the return trip."

Winston nodded. This part he knew-the first time they'd used it, Egon had to stay behind as he, Venkman, and Ray carried out their mission. The mission to save Shannon Phillips from Astorath and Nathaniel Blaque...for just a second, Winston's thoughts turned to his own encounter with the evil necromancer a few months before, before pushing it out of his mind.

Winston smirked. "If they're anything like the home town version, the Jersey Jaguars home field should be empty."

"Yeah, but it's Bizarro World!" Garrett retorted. "The Jaguars probably win the World Series every year!"

* * *

><p><strong>Los Diablos<strong>

* * *

><p>The assembled Ghostbusters of two worlds had just finished getting each other up to speed on recent events.<p>

"Dollars to doughnuts, us being sucked away at just about the same time the Peoplebusters grabbed Venkman isn't a coincidence." Mick summarized.

"Indeed." Epimetheus nodded. "Ellie told me about the accidental transit last year, and it all fit into place: ever since then, the Extreme Peoplebusters, Winston Zeddemore, and Janine Melnitz have been hunting me more obsessively than before."

"The Peoplebuster West Coast leader is a psychotic time wizard." Ulforce said, with obvious disgust. "He went to Boo York right after Life Day, the Flip Side counterpart of Halloween..."

"The Flip Side has Wookies?" Jeff interjected.

"...And has been working with them ever since." Epimetheus finished. "Now I see why."

" 'Psychotic time wizard'..." Jason mused. "Sounds like ol' Bizarro Fritz isn't totally different..."

Ulforce made a disgusted noise. "I'd really rather not hear that name used on that freak..."

Epimetheus sighed. "Still...with their Egon gone, Dr. Baugh is probably the most devious mind the Peoplebusters have."

"Whoa, wait a sec..." Aidan raised a hand. "Gone? What do you mean?"

Epimetheus adjusted his trenchcoat. "What do you know of my last visit to Earth?"

Rose spoke up. "You were Professor Spengler's physics mentor back at MIT. In 1978, right after you retired, you disappeared. Thirteen years later, in 1991, the Ghostbusters found out you'd been here. The Peoplebusters came after you, and after the Ghostbusters caught them, you left with the trap, intending to come back here."

Epimetheus nodded. "The Cliffs Notes version, but essentially right. But you see...the whole reason the Extreme Peoplebusters and the rest are after me more than ever is because I didn't make it back here immediately. I drifted for a time in some odd dimensional vortex...no perception of time. I wasn't sure if I was there for six seconds or six hundred years."

Ulforce chimed in. "The same vortex I found myself in, after some sort of accident... the memories are jumbled."

"Where and when I lost the trap the Peoplebusters were in, I don't know." Epimetheus shook his head. "But when Ulforce and I met up, there was another blast of energy...and a portal opened up near us. The portal lead here."

"But what you're saying is..." Rose summarized. "Peoplebusters Spengler, Stantz, and Venkman...are lost? And the others are after you because they think you know where they are, or were responsible for what happened to them...but you don't know where they are or what happened to them."

Epimetheus nodded. "Exactly."

Jason looked at Ulforce. Something about his part of the story didn't quite add up, and yet...

Jeff cocked an eyebrow. "I don't suppose just telling them you don't know where Peoplebuster Venkman and the others are would help?"

"Of course not." Epimetheus replied. "They think I'm lying. The Melnitz woman especially is ready to tear me to pieces-in her mind, I took her Egon away from her, and she's ready to kill over it."

Rose made a dry chuckle. "Well, at least that part didn't change between worlds..."

"So what's our next move?" Jason asked. "I don't know about you guys, but I want to get home."

"That's tricky." Ulforce mused. "All dimensional transits from this world to Earth have been accidental, involved equipment we don't have, or have been, possibly, created by one of our enemies."

"There is another possibility." Rose pointed out. "Egon-the real Egon-has built dimensional warp drives before."

There was a bit of a pride at the edge of Epimetheus's mouth for a second, but it didn't last long. "He doesn't know about the situation here. If the Peoplebusters-especially Melnitz-get their hands on him, the danger could be considerable."

"There's no chance at all they won't try something." Rose shook her head. "Peter is like a brother to him...they're coming after him, one way or another."

"Then we need to get back to Boo York." Epimetheus said. "As soon as..."

The building was shook by an explosion.

"GHOSTBUSTERS!" a loud voice that most of them realized sounded like Andy Harness bellowed. "WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!"

"Oh shit!" Mick snarled, reaching for his pack.

"How did they find us?" Ellie asked.

"I bet it has something to do with them." Ulforce indicated the Ghostbusters. "The dimensional transit probably left some distinct energy patterns that were easy to track."

"And us zapping in probably didn't help." Jeff growled. "How could I have been so stupid?"

"Not your fault, Jeffrey." Epimetheus countered. "That was my decision."

They looked out the window, and there they were. The Ghoulish Andy; Terror Dog Jeremy; Vampire Kyle; Scorpion Jeff; the Peoplebusters West Coast that Jeff and Rose remembered from a year before. Frankenstein Jason and Zombie Mick from their more recent encounter. And a creepy looking version of Aidan Munroe-well, half of him, anyway. Only the left half of him was there, trailing spectral smoke from the open half of his body.

"Ogh. Gross." Aidan looked ready to vomit.

"Well, now we know what Peoplebuster Mick meant by seeing you in one piece." Jason offered helpfully.

"So are we gonna do this the easy way or the hard way?" Andy asked. "Aw, heck, I enjoy the hard way too much-Boys, storm the place!"

"I knew I shoulda stayed home today." Rose grumbled, thumbing the safety on her neutrona blaster.

* * *

><p><strong>Boo York City<strong>

* * *

><p>Certainly, the most thrilled of any of them was Garrett Miller.<p>

Being born paraplegic, with paralyzed legs, was a challenge he took to with incredible gusto, and became stronger, faster, and tougher than most human being with a full set of working body parts. It's why he was a successful Ghostbuster with ten years experience despite the obvious drawbacks of being confined to a wheelchair.

But here...in this strange world where living beings aquired the paranormal nature that, in his world, were associated with ghosts...

"YEE-HAAAW!" Garrett Miller was literally flying.

"Not so loud, Garrett!" Roland chided. "We're trying to notattract attention..."

"Aw, let him be, Roland." Eduardo said.

"Look at this!" Garrett grinned. "I can even move them!" He executed a few karate kicks.

"It's like back on the ECTO-4." Kylie explained. "The matter in your body is obeying your will the way ectoplasm would back home. Still...I can only imagine what a rush this is for you."

Garrett guffawed and grabbed her, taking her along for a bad aerial squaredance.

"Hey!" Eduardo complained. "That's my wife you're dancin' with!"

"I'm fair, Torgo." Garrett retorted. "I'll take you next..."

"Okay, okay..." Winston interrupted. "I know this is all an experience, but we're here for a reason?"

"Sir yes sir!" Garrett saluted, letting Kylie go.

Winston and the four Extreme Ghostbusters were loaded for bear; Eduardo, as usual, wasn't in a standard flight suit, but the rest were-Winston in blue, Kylie in black, Garrett and Roland in tan-grey. Kylie was hefting a Proton Rail Gun, while the rest were strapping Mark 4 Proton Packs. There were no ghost traps-Egon figured they probably wouldn't work here at all.

"I just wish Egon and Ray'd figured out how to open a comm line to back home." Winston said. "The very first time they came here, we managed to get a signal through a weird accident with Slimer and the shortwave, but they couldn't get it to work again."

"One of those million-to-one oddities, I guess." Kylie nodded. "Still, it would have been nice..."

They hadn't gotten very far from the ECTO-4's landing spot (as it turned out, the Jaguars were, indeed, world champions, but as the parking lot featured several monster trucks, a flying saucer, a racing pod team, and a Tim Burton-style Batmobile, the ECTO-4 blended in perfectly) when they heard a familiar siren.

"They're quick." Garrett commented.

"We can't let them find Egon." Winston said. "They know somethingis here, though, so they'd better find something. Namely us."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Roland asked.

"No." Winston admitted. "But worse comes to worse, we still find Peter, don't we?"

"I love this plan!" Garrett grinned. "I'm excited to be a part of it!"

Only a moment later, a souped up monster truck with the Peoplebuster logo and a license plate reading PROTO-1 skidded to a stop

"Frickin' meat, sendin' us on wild goose chases..." Peoplebuster Eduardo grumbled as he pulled out his BKE Meter. "Still, the reading is solid."

"Just lemme at 'em!" Peoplebuster Garrett frothed, hopping up and down excitedly.

"We gotta find'em first..." Eduardo replied.

* * *

><p><em>"This is Harry Scary here in the box, keeping you up on the latest on tonight's game, as the Jersey Jaguars are leading the Los Diablo Dodgers 7-1. As you can see on the field, the pitcher for the Jaguars is slowing down, and the manager has called for the seventh inning steroid injection to keep him going!"<em>

A mad doctor approached the mound brandishing a giant horse needle. But as the pitcher just happened to have a horse head, it wasn't as odd as it might have been.

_"The playoffs look competitive as ever this year; it's expected to be the tenth straight World Series matching the Jaguars against the Chicago Cubs...those are always intense..."_

As the doctor left the mound and play resumed, the pitcher whinnied, and looked thoughtful.

"I'd go with the fast ball." a smooth voice prompted.

"I always go with the fast ball in the seventh inning." the pitcher muttered.

The batter stepped up to the plate; he looked like a muscular bobblehead with tiny, spindly legs and huge arms. "I bet he's gonna throw a fastball." a voice told the batter.

"Don't tell me how to...huh?" the batter turned around to see Garrett floating nearby.

"AAAAHHHH!" the batter screamed, running away. "PEOPLE!"

Garrett grabbed the bat (which just happened to sport wings). "Substitute hitter!"

"I definitely recommend the fast ball for this guy." the first voice told the pitcher.

"No Sir, I don't like..." The pitcher squealed like a pig and ran, when he realized that a living being was talking to him. Winston, to be specific.

The stands were erupting in panicked cries of "PEOPLE! AAAGH!"-and one stubborn troll who stayed in his seat, muttering "They ain't gonna call the game because of this, are they?"

* * *

><p>Peoplebuster Kylie pointed at the nearby stadium. "I hear lots of screams!"<p>

"I think we found them." Eduardo said drolly, unholstering his slime cannon.

* * *

><p>"You think you can strike out Brooklyn Heights, Old Man?" Garrett cried, with (semi) mock bluster.<p>

"Junior, I've been playing baseball since you were nothing but a gleam in your Daddy's eye!" Winston replied just as jovially.

"Well, yeah, but you were watching the Jaguars!" Garrett retorted. "All you saw was a lot of losing!"

Eduardo was sitting near the bullpen. "You know, on the Flip Side, the popcorn and beer here are pretty good."

Winston pitched.

Garrett hit it...

...And it slammed straight into Peoplebuster Roland, who, like his three cohorts, had just entered the field.

"Foul ball!" Ghostbuster Roland shouted.

"He's getting better." Eduardo said drolly. "Ten years ago he probably would have called that a touchback."

"Shows over, Meatbags!" Peoplebuster Garrett howled. "Brooklyn Barrows is in the house again!"

"I think it's showtime, Eddie." Kylie said, jumping to the field. Eduardo looked at his popcorn, sighed, and then joined her.

Peoplebuster Eduardo drew a bead on Garrett. "I got a pitch for you." With that, he squeezed off a shot from his slime thrower.

"Hey batter batter!" Garrett shouted as the shot flew toward him. "Swing!" With that, he slammed the slimey shot straight back at PB Eduardo.

Both the goatlike Peoplebuster, and Garrett, had pretty much the same thought afterwards: _That was not the smartest thing I've ever done_; Eduardo was on the ground struggling with his own containment slime; Garrett, meanwhile, had enough of it on him that he was stuck to his bat-which was now panicked and trying to fly away.

Peoplebuster Garrett, meanwhile, was howling and blasting indiscriminately, hitting bystanders and players alike.

Eduardo made a quick glance in the direction of his thrower, still slung to his back. "Think it's time to..."

"Not yet." Kylie shook her head. With that, she flew over to the cheerleader who looked vaguely like her.

"Don't worry, Miss!" Peoplebuster Kylie said cheerfully. "The Peoplebusters are on the case! We'll take care of these people before you even make it home back to your coffin!"

Kylie tripped her. "Get some self respect." she snorted. "A cheerleader? Please..."

"I'll be a ghoul's uncle!" Peoplebuster Roland remarked. "There's a Meat Zeddemore after all!"

Winston beaned him with a speedball. _Sigh...here I am playing baseball with Peter's life on the line in the outcome. Again._

"Get down Sir!" Roland pushed Winston out of the way just as one of PB Garrett's crazy shots nearly hit him.

PB Kylie got up, her eyes wide. "Hey! You're a people!"

Kylie tripped her again. "Hey! You're a genius!" she mocked.

"Get up you idiots!" PB Eduardo was screaming. "We ain't gonna let a bunch of ugly skin-covered mockeries beat the Extreme Peoplebusters!"

The Peoplebusters got in formation, slime throwers charged and locked.

"Uh oh..." Eduardo breathed.

"Say good night, Gravey!" Peoplebuster Roland grinned. "On three..."

"THREE!"

The Extreme Peoplebusters fired as one.

* * *

><p>To Be Continued<p>

* * *

><p>Ghostbusters West Coast Staff: Afterlife Of The Party, Fritz Baugh, Mike Devicente, egon901, Andy Harness, Jason Knetge, Miss Janine, Aidan Munroe, Mick Nielson, Kyle Stevens, TheRazorsEdge<br>Editorial Staff: Dr. Vincent Belmont, EGB Fan  
>Additional Beta: Kingpin, OgreBBQ, Brian Reilly<p>

* * *

><p>The Peoplebusters created by Tony Marino in the RGB episode "Flip Side" (RGB-402). Professor Epimetheus created by Barry Peterson for Now Comics; he was mentioned in the 1992 3-D Annual, but never appeared in print.<p>

The Jersey Jaguars are a reference to "Night Game" (RGB-207), written by Kathryn M. Dreenan

I am so going to Hell for putting King Remils in a story. He came from one of Marvel UK's stupidest stories, in issue 22 of their RGB comic.

ECTO-4 created by James Van Hise and John Tobias. It appeared frequently in the Now Comics series. Mention is made of the events of "The Father Thing Trilogy" (RGB#9-11) and "Wild In The Streets" (RGB#20, 22)

Maverick Tanner created by Mick Nielson.

* * *

><p>#3819-72109t<br>Established 80309m  
>112<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

**Extreme Ghostbusters/Ghostbusters West Coast:**  
><strong>Flip Side War<strong>  
><strong>Part Six<strong>

From the files of Dr. Fritz V. Baugh, GBWC CEO  
>GBI Case File No. GBI-2007-25310

* * *

><p><strong>Previously<strong>

* * *

><p>After finishing a seemingly routine case, four members of the Ghostbusters West Coast-Mick Nielson, Jason Knetge, Aidan Munroe, and Rose Prevost-are snatched up by a tornado and deposited on the Flip Side, the Bizarro World that the original Ghostbusters visited years ago.<p>

They encounter the Peoplebuster counterparts of Mick and Jason, and are helped to safety by a man named Victor Ulforce, who bears an eerie resemblance to GBWC CEO Fritz Baugh. Ulforce, in turn, takes them to Ellie, the Flip Side's living counterpart of GBWC Spirit Liaison Rachel Leavenworth.

In New York City, at virtually the same time, the debut concert of Oscar Wallance Venkman's band, Mood Slime, is interrupted by the appearance of the Extreme Peoplebusters. The Peoplebusters kidnap Peter Venkman and return to their home dimension.

They had a stowaway, though, GBWC and Nightsquad member Jeff Nash, who runs into the Peoplebusters' longtime enemy: Professor Ian Epimetheus. The same Professor Epimetheus who had once been the mentor to GBI co-founder Egon Spengler. Epimetheus and Nash use Jeff's ninja powers to teleport to Los Diablos-just in time for the Peoplebusters West Coast to find all of them.

Egon is bringing the Extreme Ghostbusters and Winston to the rescue, though, in the ECTO-4 and its newly-rebuilt dimensional warp drive. The Ghostbusters find themselves fighting their undead counterparts in the middle of a baseball game played by the Flip Side's version of the Jersey Jaguars.  
>[ [ br ] ]<br>The headline for the next day's _Boo York Post_would read as follows:

_**Jags/Dodgers Game Called Due To Snow**_

The Extreme Peoplebusters fired.

Then got buried in a snowdrift.

"What the hell?" Kylie screamed. Only seconds before, it was a calm, warm late-summer's night in Boo York, much like it was back on Earth.

Now it was white-out blizzard conditions.

* * *

><p><em>"I repeat..."<em> the public address system announced. _"The management has called the game due to inclement weather. You may contact the ticket office next week for free tickets to a future game..."_

The troll in the stands cursed loudly, as his head popped out of a snowdrift. "They call this snow? They gotta be kidding!

* * *

><p><strong>Los Diablos<strong>  
><strong>A Few Minutes Ago...<strong>

* * *

><p>They looked out the window, and there they were. The Ghoulish Andy; Terror Dog Jeremy; Vampire Kyle; Scorpion Jeff; the Peoplebusters West Coast that Jeff and Rose remembered from a year before. Frankenstein Jason and Zombie Mick from their more recent encounter. And a creepy looking version of Aidan Munroe-well, half of him, anyway. Only the left half of him was there, trailing spectral smoke from the open half of his body.<p>

"Ogh. Gross." Aidan looked ready to vomit.

"Well, now we know what Peoplebuster Mick meant by seeing you in one piece." Jason offered helpfully.

"So are we gonna do this the easy way or the hard way?" Andy asked. "Aw, heck, I enjoy the hard way too much-Boys, storm the place!"

"I knew I shoulda stayed home today." Rose grumbled, thumbing the safety on her neutrona blaster.

"We have to get back to Boo York." Epimetheus said. "Now."

"You gotta be kiddin' me!" Jeff spat. "We just got here! I don't know if it'll work again, and even if it does, I don't have the juice!"

"I'm starting to think leaving might be a really good idea." Aidan noted. "Even with the packs in Mode Three, they still have us out gunned."

"I have some ability to manipulate temporal energies." Ulforce spoke up. "It's how I was able to dodge the Peoplebusters earlier, when I first met you guys-I slowed the flow of time for everyone else, and moved out of the way where Knetge and Nielson were shooting. I can also speed it up-say, to accelerate the regeneration of Dr. Nash's metabolism?"

With a loud roar, Peoplebuster Jason started to smash against the door to the old firehouse.

"We're running out of time." Mick said. "Jeff? Your power, your call."

"F-..." Jeff muttered, suspicious of this for more than one reason. "All right. Get close."

Ulforce adjusted his visor, and then concentrated. Jeff's posture straightened. "Whoa...it's like a six pack of Jolt Cola poured straight into my spine..."

The air in the room began to chill again.

Peoplebuster Jason howled as he shattered the front doorway and barged into the garage of the firehouse, his comrades close behind.

"Get ready folks..."

* * *

><p><strong>Boo York<strong>  
><strong>Now<strong>

* * *

><p>A brief blast of protons extricated Eduardo and Kylie from their snowdrift. "What the heck just happened? That's weird weather even for this place!" Kylie said.<p>

"They probably heard that stuff about the Jags makin' the World Series, and Hell froze over." Eduardo quipped. "You all right?"

Kylie nodded. "Yeah...you see the others?"

"No, but you won't believe who I dosee!"

In the middle of the field, there was a spot clear of snow, but blue vapors still billowed around. Standing in the middle of it, Eduardo and Kylie saw, were Jeff Nash, the Ghostbusters West Coast members who had disappeared in California, and three others.

Jeff looked even paler than usual, and staggered, like he was ready to fall over.

"You did it, Jeffrey!" an older man said excitedly.

Kylie gasped-she'd seen the pictures Egon had. "Professor Epimetheus!"

"Is that Frito and La Chica Fantasma?" Eduardo wondered. "They look different..."

Then one of the other snowdrifts exploded, accompanied by a howl of rage.

A Frankenstein-like monster with sideburns and a flight suit bearing the name "Knetge" charged Eduardo and Kylie.

"Oh Hell." Eduardo muttered, as he and Kylie dodged the enraged Peoplebuster.

* * *

><p>"What the f-?" Jason shouted.<p>

"This place f-s me up..." Jeff said weakly. "My powers are all amped up, but I can barely control it..."

"And we got the Peoplebusters along for the ride. Wonderful." Mick sighed.

"Nas! Nas nas nas!" The Peoplebuster version of Aidan screamed, jumping on his counterpart.

"This isn't fair!" Aidan shouted. "Why is my Flip Side version gross?"

"Shit!" Jason said. "This just gets better by the minute!"

"GET OVER HERE!" Scorpion Jeff growled, impaling Ulforce with his grappling hook, jerking the confused pseudo-Ghostbuster to him, and throwing him into a wall.

The thrown Ulforce just missed Peoplebuster Mick. "My luck wins again!"

"God Dammit, Epimetheus!" Mick shouted, grabbing the older man by the lapels. "My team's being demolished, and it's all your fault! Now f-ing do something!"

"What the hell, Mick?" Jeff croaked, still too weak to move. "That's Spengler's mentor! You can't..."

"I don't f-ing care!" Mick retorted. "He could be Spengler himself and I'd be just as pissed!" He turned back to Epimetheus. "This is your stupid turf war with Peoplebusters we've been stuck in the middle of, and I'm f-ing sick to death of it!"

Epimetheus just stared back at him for a moment, then his eyes fell. His shoulders drooped. The lines on his face seemed suddenly more pronounced. He looked, indeed, like a tired old man.

"Then perhaps it istime to end this." Epimetheus finally said. "Now that I think we can..."

Winston finished extracting himself from a snowdrift, and took only a couple of seconds to assess the situation.

"NOW!" Winston shouted, pulling his proton thrower. The other Extreme Ghostbusters followed suit.

"You gotta be kiddin'..." Peoplebuster Garrett guffawed. "We know those things are useless here!"

Winston fired. The beam was red, and threw less sparks than the normal beam.

To the shock of Peoplebuster Garrett, he was held fast by it.

Winston turned a knob.

The beam pulsed, and a play of energy surrounded the Peoplebuster. With an unearthly shriek, Peoplebuster Garrett fell to the ground, and didn't move.

"Your information is a bit out of date, Pinhead." Winston sneered.

"What the sprock?" Peoplebuster Eduardo shouted, as he was similarly downed by his Ghostbuster counterpart.

"Toro toro toro!" Garrett shouted, drawing the attention of Peoplebuster Jeremy, who was now in his Terror Dog form.

"You shoulda taken that other turn at Albuquerque, Meatsack!" Terror Dog Jeremy roared, pawing at the ground, snorting, and then charging.

Garrett shot him. "You didn't see Episode 2, did you?"

"ENOUGH!" the booming voice of Ian Epimetheus silenced the assembled mob.

There was a shriek, and they turned to see him floating in the air, Peoplebuster Kylie in hand, her weapon pointed at her head. "I think it's far past time for us to have a conversation like rational beings."

"Kylie! You do anything to her, Meatbag..." Peoplebuster Eduardo growled.

"Melnitz and Zeddemore." Epimetheus said forcefully. "Get them here now."

"You gotta be kiddin'..." Flip Side Eduardo snarled. "Why would we do that?"

"Because I think they might be interested in hearing the terms of my surrender to them."

PB Eduardo was on his Deth-phone already.

"I didn't think I'd driven him thisfar!" Mick gulped.

"Professor!" Ellie called. "You can't do this!"

"There's no other way." Epimetheus shook his head. "But trust me. I have an idea."

There were a lot of confused looks, among the living and the dead

* * *

><p><strong>The ECTO-4<strong>  
><strong>Fifteen Minutes Later<strong>

* * *

><p>"I understand they call you 'Professor' now?" Epimetheus said warmly. He was pleasantly surprised when his old student embraced him, without the hesitation, the unease, he had experienced in past meetings.<p>

"I taught school for a while in the Nineties." Egon explained. "It sort of stuck."

"Jeffrey explained that." Epimetheus nodded. "You're looking quite well-the years have been very kind to you. What is it now? Fifty?"

Egon coughed. "Well, not quite yet. It's good to see you again, Professor."

Epimetheus shook his head. "You're the Professor now, Egon. If I can't get you to call me Ian, 'Doctor' will be acceptable."

Egon dispelled the awkward pause by reaching into his flight suit pocket. He handed the older man a photograph. Epimetheus examined it, seeing Egon; an older-but still quite vibrant-version of the same young woman he'd met sixteen years before; and two eight year olds, a boy and a girl, with obvious resemblances to both of them.

The older man felt his eyes mist. "They're beautiful, Egon."

"Eden Marie and Johnathan Christopher." Egon elaborated. "Born June 13, 1999."

Epimetheus raised an eyebrow. "It took you and Janine another eight years?"

Egon coughed. "It's...a long story."

Epimetheus started to pass the photo back, but Egon refused it. "Keep it, Profess...Doctor. It's yours."

Epimetheus smiled. "You are the closest thing I ever had to a son, Egon. I look forward to someday meeting my 'grandchildren'."

"Well, Hello Handsome!"

Egon was shocked and, truth to tell, a little revolted when the Peoplebuster version of Janine appeared, wearing one of his-or, rather, one of his Peoplebuster counterpart's-flight suits to boot. He remembered being a bit annoyed (but secretly flattered) when Janine (the real Janine) had chosen colors similar to his own (after experimenting with a few other styles). The chalk-faced doppelganger didn't look nearly as good in it. The fact that she was looking at him with hungry eye sockets didn't help, either.

Roland followed last. "Everyone else is waiting at, er, Peoplebusters Central. Doctor Venkman is being held there."

"Is he all right?" Egon looked at Peoplebuster Janine critically.

"Other than probably gaining a few pounds from Remils feeding him, yeah." she grinned. "Your concern for him is so cute."

Egon winced, but decided against asking for clarification.

"The deal is simple." Epimetheus explained. "I traded my surrender to the Peoplebusters for the lives and freedom of the various Ghostbusters, including Peter. I will be freed, in turn, if I can arrange the return of their versions of Spengler, Stantz, and Venkman."

"We always knew you were holding out on us." Janine snarled.

"I've given up trying to convince you otherwise." Epimetheus snorted. "But what's changed now is that my old student is here, and if anyone can find out where the Peoplebusters are, it's you." He placed a hand on Egon's shoulder.

"No pressure, right?" Egon quipped, punching some figures into the ECTO-4's console. "Fortunately, you're right. I have the readings I took when you disappeared from Earth sixteen years ago, which should lead us into whatever dimensional vortex you and the Peoplebusters were shunted into."

"There's a truce in effect until either twelve hours passes, or after we return with the Peoplebusters." Roland explained, sitting in the copilot's seat. "So the clock is ticking."

* * *

><p><strong>Peoplebusters Central<strong>

* * *

><p>"Well well well..." Winston heard a creepily familiar voice greet him. "You <span>do<span>exist after all."

"I could say the same thing about you." Winston snapped back at his Peoplebuster counterpart. "We just had this bad habit of missing the other guys visits to the other's worlds. Where's Peter?"

Winston called up to the fire pole. "REMILS! Bring the guest downstairs!"

The Extreme Ghostbusters looked at each other " 'Remils'?"

A bald, pudgy little man flew through the garage roof from the second floor, dragging along, the Ghostbusters were relieved to see, Peter Venkman.

"Peter!" Winston cried. "God, Man, you look like you've been in a food fight."

"I'm too happy to see you to come up with a sarcastic remark, so you better all mark this date on your calendars." Venkman said.

"But that's a sarcastic remark right there, Pete." Winston retorted. "You blew it." He looked at Peoplebuster Winston. "Can we get this crap off of him?"

Jason, Mick, and Aidan hadn't encountered Peoplebuster Fritz the previous year, so the undead version of their team CEO was a new quantity. Whether Peoplebuster Fritz was more unnerving than Victor Ulforce, though, was a question they were all grappling with.

"I don't know how Fritz is gonna take all of this." Rose said. " 'For some reason, you have two duplicates on the Flip Side.' "

"I think he's gonna be too busy changing diapers soon to worry about that." Mick retorted.

Aidan was staring at his counterpart, who was staring back with the one eye it had. "What the hell happened to make you like this?" Aidan finally worked up the nerve to ask.

"Nas?" Peoplebuster Aidan answered.

"What kind of answer is that?"

"Nas nas nas." Peoplebuster Aidan replied.

"Never mind."

"Yousa gonna take Remils new friend Pee-tah away?" Remils asked worriedly.

"That's the plan." Winston answered, as Peoplebuster Winston set Venkman free. He felt oddly sympathetic to the wretched little man. "But you'll have your Peter back pretty soon."

Remils' eyes widened with anticipation.

"We hope." Eduardo whispered to Kylie.

* * *

><p><strong>Location: Unknown<strong>

* * *

><p>"Now this place is weird..." Roland said.<p>

"I think that's the understatement of the century." Epimetheus noted.

Multi-colored mists swirled around...whorls and patterns...

"It's a lot like the clouds of Jupiter..." Roland mused. "If they were phosphorescent."

"Dimensional shunt was successful." Egon noted, form the ECTO-4's controls. "This is the place Professor Epimetheus and the Peoplebusters should have arrived, according to the readings I had on file from 1991. Would you please stop that?" The last bit was to Peoplebuster Janine, who was playing with his hair.

"I can't help myself..." she purred. "You may be alive, but you're so much like him it's hard to resist..."

"There!" Roland called. "I see something!"

Egon tweaked the vehicle's thrusters, taking it closer to the object Roland indicated.

Egon was studying the instruments. "There's a massive bubble of delta energy around that location." Perhaps out of reflexive habit after years of having to re-explain things, he clarified. "A time anomaly of some sort."

"That's it..." Epimetheus breathed, rubbing his head. "It's starting to feel...familiar..."

* * *

><p>Roland was now in an environment suit, a tether connecting him to the ECTO-4 floating just a dozen meters away.<p>

_"You must work quickly, Roland."_ Egon told him. _"The protonic charge in the suit will only protect you for a short time before the temporal distortion starts to affect you too."_

"Understood." Roland said simply, the light attached to his chest shining into the dark object. He gingerly stepped inside from a hole ripped into one corner.

_"What the Hell is it?"_Janine asked.

"I swear it looks like..." Roland inhaled. "Kind of like the old physics lab back at NYCCC. Maybe slightly better, but...and it's also kind of a mess. There's...there's test tubes that seem to be floating in midair. Not in the zero-gee sense, the completely motionless sense, like a frozen 3-D picture."

_"The time distortion."_ Epimetheus offered. _"It's a single instant that's been frozen in place, like a Polaroid."_

Roland continued to look around. His attention was drawn for a second to a design, a stylized letter "P" in black and yellow, before he saw...

"Doctor Epimetheus! Did you say your portal was a round, metal device about two meters high?"

_"That's correct, Doctor Jackson."_

"Then I think I'm looking right at it." Roland noted. "It seems to be half buried in one of the walls. And...I see a ghost trap!"

For a second, though, he watched something else. Next to the portal, a strange contraption consisting of gyroscopic rings...it reminded him of a diagram he'd seen of the prototype dimensional transit device Ray and Egon had built back around the time Roland was born.

Most notably, the rings blurred and changed positions as he watched.

"What the hell..." he breathed.

_"We're running out of time, Roland!"_Egon barked. Grab the trap!"

Roland cursed under his breath. There was a mystery that intrigued him here, and he hated having to leave it to solve another time.

* * *

><p><strong>Peoplebusters Central<strong>

* * *

><p>"You doin' okay, Miz Prevost?" Eduardo asked, giving a skunk eye to Vampire Kyle, who was looking at Kylie like a four-course dinner.<p>

"Yeah." Rose exhaled. "Looks like another one of Egon's ideas has saved our asses, huh?"

Winston rolled his eyes. "Ray's actually. He thought that if we combined the negative ionization setting with an unbuffered dispersion beam, we could knock them on their asses. Looks like he was right." He smirked at her. "Contrary to popular belief, Egon doesn't come up with allthe ideas around here.

"That sounds good." Rose nodded. "Not that I have any idea what a lot of that really means..."

"The positive ionization is setting three on the Mark 4 Proton Pack." Kylie explained. "Unbuffered dispersion is what some would-be competitor with a Ghostbusting robot tried back in the '80's. It just blew the ghosts up and made them angry."

"But since a lot works opposite here, it just shuts a Peoplebuster down." Eduardo finished. "Like a taser."

"Awesome." Jason whistled.

The Peoplebuster Fritz gave Ulforce a strange little smirk.

"I look forward the end of the truce." the unliving man said. "It will be quite interesting to catch you, get you into my laboratory, and try to find out what you reallyare."

Ulforce was silent for a few seconds. "Oh really?" he finally said.

"Oh, I know what we all assumed." Flip Side Fritz said. "We all assumed that you were my meat counterpart, somehow transplanted here. That was..." Fritz chuckled, savoring the thought of Ulforce's reaction. "...Before last year's incident, when I encountered the real deal."

Ulforce flinched.

"Leader of the Ghostbusters West Coast. Missing a leg. His own Chelsea." Fritz's eye sockets narrowed. "I don't know how I could have ever expected differently."

"Shut up." Ulforce snipped.

Ellie and Jason, both nearby, looked concerned. Ulforce looked at Jason. "Is there some truth to what he's saying?"

"Um, well, yeah." Jason admitted, disconcerted over the way Peoplebuster Jason was scowling at him. "Fritz's been with the GBWC since it was founded-and been the boss for the last three years."

Ellie knew Ulforce better. She could detect the tinge in his voice. "Interesting." was all he actually said, but a lot more was hiding behind the word.

Remils started looking at the ceiling and drooling.

Both Peoplebuster Fritz and Ulforce's brows furrowed in a similar way, as the former pulled out his BKE Meter.

"I think they've returned." Fritz said simply.

The sound of the ECTO-4's jets provided confirmation.

Within seconds, most of the occupants of the Peoplebuster firehouse where on the roof, as the ECTO-4 angled in for a final approach.

"If they've done anything funny to Janine, and reneged...well...it's gonna be unpleasant for somebody." Peoplebuster Winston growled; though notably, unlike the Extreme Peoplebusters, he hadn't drawn his weapon. Yet.

A few moments later, the ECTO-4 emptied. "Professor?" Jason asked.

Egon silently held up a ghost trap, and placed it on the ground.

Peoplebuster Janine stomped on the pedal.

The familiar cone of light sprang out, and into it materialized the three original Peoplebusters, the undead versions of Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, and Ray Stantz, still writhing in anger and pain

"Epimetheus!" Peoplebuster Egon shouted.

"You meatbag scum!" Peoplebuster Venkman added.

Peoplebuster Ray was the first one to realize they were no longer in Ghostbusters Central in 1991. "Huh?"

Just about then, Peoplebuster Janine called Egon's name and tackled the appropriate Peoplebuster hungrily.

"Hey...wait a minute..." Peoplebuster Venkman realized. "Where's...what's...I..."

"PEE-TAH!" With that, Remils tackled him in a manner uncomfortably similar to Janine's takedown of Egon.

"You guys are home now." Peoplebuster Winston told them. "How long do you think until they come up for air?" He gestured at Peoplebuster Egon and Janine.

"If they're anything like mine, it'll be a while." Venkman quipped, drawing an eyeroll and a cough from Egon.

"I would recommend a full assortment of tests as soon as possible." Egon told Peoplebuster Fritz. "They were held in temporal stasis for, at least relative to our continuum, over sixteen years."

Fritz just smirked.

Peoplebuster Garrett grinned. "So does this mean the truce is over?"

Peoplebuster Winston held up a hand. "No. They held their end of the bargain, we'll hold up ours. You may all leave this place in peace, as agreed. Even Epimetheus."

"The Extreme Ghostbusters, Peter, and Jeff will be coming back with us on the ECTO-4." Winston nodded at his counterpart. "As soon as we figure out how to get Mick and the West Coast boys..."

Rose coughed.

"...West Coast crew..." Winston corrected himself with a chuckle. "...Back to LA"

"They were refracted here from the initial transit of the Extreme Peoplebusters." Fritz interjected. "They should transit back to their home dimension shortly."

"You gotta be kidding me." Mick snorted.

"I never kid." Peoplebuster Fritz retorted.

"How you doin', Egon?" Peoplebuster Janine purred.

"I feel like the floor of a taxi cab." Peoplebuster Egon answered. "But improving by the nanosecond."

"Let's get out of here before this turns into the wrong kind of porn." Venkman quipped, grabbing Egon and Winston. "And I apologize in advance if I barf on the floorboards, Ziggy-I don't think I'll be eating until at least New Year's"

* * *

><p><strong>Epilogue The First<strong>  
><strong>Los Angeles, California<strong>  
><strong>September 21, 2007<strong>

* * *

><p>There was a flash of light, and the ECTO-WC materialized.<p>

"Son of a bitch!" Mick shouted. "It actually worked!"

"I admit, I had my doubts." Aidan nodded. "When Dead Fritz said that the transit would wear off, it sounded like he was full of crap. But here we are."

"Looks like about where we left, too." Jason added. "Thank goodness the traffic isn't as bad. Hell, what time is it, anyway? My watch is still all screwy from the Flip Side."

Rose shushed everyone. She was on the phone with GBCentral West (who had been apprised by Jeff what was going on with the Flip Siders). "Holy cow...we'll be right there."

"What?" Mick asked.

"Jeremy said Chelsea took a hit while we were gone." Rose shook her head. "Something about the Soul Tracker hitting the warehouse. She's been in the hospital since then and...she went into labor about three hours ago."

"Heh." Jason chuckled. "I guess we'd better get back to HQ in time for cigars, right?"

Mick chuckled along, and gunned the SWAT van's engine. But as he did...an incident from just before they left the Flip Side played in his mind.

_ Ulforce grabbed Mick's shoulder. "I wish I had the time to explain better" he said tersely. "But whoever that man on Earth is...I assure you he's not Fritz Baugh." _

Mick chewed his bottom lip. _I can't believe what he's saying for a second, but at the same time, I don't get the feeling he was lying, either. Who the f- is that Ulforce guy, anyway?_

* * *

><p><strong>Epilogue The Second<strong>  
><strong>New York City<strong>  
><strong>6:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time<strong>

* * *

><p>Vincent Belmont, Ghostbuster and Magus of the Order of Hermes, saw the flash of light in the sky.<p>

_A falling star? This could be an ill omen..._

With a little magic, he followed the falling meteorite. It impacted in the Hudson River, and he followed it.

A few simple Rego Aquam and Rego Terram spells, and the still-warm object floated to him.

He concentrated, an Intellego Vim spell giving him a detailed astrological view of the skies. _An arrival? An arrival of something of great importance? Hm..._

His cell phone began to ring.

_ GHOSTB. WEST  
>(310) 555-4292 <em>

"Greetings. Yes...That's wonderful, Rose. 3:03 AM, you say?" He looked at the meteor. _"An arrival of something of great importance?"_"I will contact Fritz later today, after he's had some sleep. Until then, pass along my regards."

After Rose hung up-she had many more calls to make-Vincent studied the meteor with a wry smile. _I think I know what little Abigail Pauline will be receiving for her first birthday..._

* * *

><p><strong>Finis<strong>

* * *

><p>Ghostbusters West Coast Staff: Afterlife Of The Party, Fritz Baugh, Mike Devicente, egon901, Andy Harness, Jason Knetge, Miss Janine, Aidan Munroe, Mick Nielson, Kyle Stevens, TheRazorsEdge<br>Editorial Staff: Dr. Vincent Belmont, EGB Fan  
>Additional Beta: Kingpin, OgreBBQ, Brian Reilly<p>

* * *

><p>Epilogue The Second from an idea by Vincent Belmont<p>

The Peoplebusters created by Tony Marino in the RGB episode "Flip Side" (RGB-402). Professor Epimetheus created by Barry Peterson for Now Comics; he was mentioned in the 1992 3-D Annual, but never appeared in print.

The Jersey Jaguars are a reference to "Night Game" (RGB-207), written by Kathryn M. Dreenan

I am so going to Hell for putting King Remils in a story. He came from one of Marvel UK's stupidest stories, in issue 22 of their RGB comic.

ECTO-4 created by James Van Hise and John Tobias. It appeared frequently in the Now Comics series.

* * *

><p>#3856-112909u<br>114


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